Sorry I've been MIA for awhile. Emma has been sick for about a week. It started last Tuesday night when she woke up at 3am with 103 fever. I took her to the doctor Wednesday only to find out that yet again she had a viral infection. I soooo hate viruses-- there's nothing you can do but wait it out and buy stock in Children's Motrin! Turns out she had something her pediatrician termed "paraflu" basically a cousin to the real flu-- but a cousin that Tamaflu wouldn't help treat, so more Motrin!!! Well, the cousin lasted his 3 days as the Doc had predicted and yesterday morning she had a new visitor (I'm guessing the crazy uncle in this disease process!) a nice hacking cough but luckily with no fever accompanying it. The nurse I spoke with yesterday told me they were seeing this cough linger for about 5 days in kids who had gotten the "cousin". My first thought was, Great! Poor kid can't catch a break. My second thought was, how bad is this thing gonna get?!? At about 4am last night I found out. I awoke to what sounded like someone whistling through Emma's baby monitor. I rushed upstairs to discover that it was Emma wheezing while she slept. I camped out in the recliner in her room to keep a closer eye on her and she woke up about 15 minutes later and had apparently changed species. The poor baby was barking like a seal. For all you parents out there who have had a child with croup, I can now truly understand your misery at having to witness such a barking fit. I immediately scooped her up and took her downstairs and out the front door into the cool night air. It took a minute but it worked. However, I then got to see her gasping for breath. Something I hope to never witness again-- in my profession I've seen that type of stridor from people on their death beds and I'm not exaggerating when I say that's what it reminded me of. A truly horrific experience.
Well, I called the on-call doc and we were first in line at the office this morning. Dr. Bowtie (not his name, but dude was wearing a pretty slick bow tie-- which unfortunately I can never appreciate or buy for my husband because every time I see a bow tie the image of my eight grade English 1 teacher pops in my head, and that bald dude is not what I want to picture anytime that I look at my husband-- so no bow ties for Mick!) Sorry for the rant, but Dr. BT prescribed some oral steroid drops for Emma and hopefully all will be well in a few days. He did however warn me that it might get worse before it gets better... yeah!! Just what a mom who's pretty scared wants to hear-- but I appreciate his honesty-- sort of! So, hopefully the barking will not return and Emma will not be learning how to balance a beach ball on her nose anytime soon. Please keep Emma in your prayers tonight and hope this family of illnesses will leave her alone soon! She's entirely too cute to be sick like this, how unfair!
Hopefully the steroids won't beef her up too much :-)
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