In which Evan awakes at 4 am
One thing that being a mother has taught me is how to become fully awake and alert from a dead sleep. I didn't do that before Evan was born - of course I slept more soundly then, too. It's a necessity now; having a crying child standing by your face with blood or vomit running down his pajama top will bring you to your senses pretty fast. Well, at least it does me - it seems that Chris is largely oblivious, and will sleep through most any crisis.
This morning at 4, I discovered Evan standing next to my side of the the bed. He was crying, and I recall that his mouth was open like he had something in it that he didn't like. He sounded horse and his speech was punctuated with croupy coughs. I'm looking for bodily fluids, but don't find anything. He says that he has to go potty, and when he comes back I sit up in bed, and pull him in with me. His heart seems to be beating triple-time, and he's complaining about his head. We're still trying to communicate between coughs, and so it takes some time to extract "dizzy" from him. His respirations are fast, too. Of course he'd be dizzy with that happening. I put my hands on his chest to feel for wheezing, and instead find that he's feverish.
Chris is of course fully activated by this time, and has brought in Evan's nebulizer. No, bad idea - it'll raise his heart rate, and we don't need that. I told Chris he'd better get dressed. I had Mother evaluate him. She found that the issue was in his airway rather than his lungs, and concurred that he needed to go to the hospital. Never the calm parent when something's wrong with his kid, Chris is now in full panic mode, racing around, throwing on clothes, fetching sweats for Evan. I admonished him to calm down and he did manage to do so - either due to pressure or exhaustion, I'm not sure - until we finally arrived back home.
I left Evan on the bed being evaluated by Mother while I dressed and brushed my teeth. After a quick search for my insurance card, we bundled boy into the car and headed for Littleton Adventist. By the time we got there, his breathing was approaching normal and I was suspecting croup.
Kids with croup are usually helped by taking them outdoors into the cold. The air temperature seems to relieve the inflammation that causes the croupy cough. The first time he had croup, by the time we got him to the clinic on a freezing night the attacks had largely subsided, and we felt a bit foolish having brought him in. But the doctor explained that we had inadvertantly applied one of the more reliable treatments.
He did have a good cough sitting on the admissions counter, which attracted the attention of the admitting nurse. She said that he was the third kid with croup on the shift, and that the other two kids were much sicker than Evan. They gave him oxygen and a steroid, and by 6:15 we were headed home. I could tell he was feeling better; he was getting ornery in the exam room.
We came home intending to go back to bed, all three of us. Although Evan insisted that he wasn't sleepy, it only took him about 5 minutes in bed between Chris and me to fall asleep. There he remained until 11:00 - five and a half hours. I concluded that he hadn't gotten much sleep the night before, and I do recall hearing coughs throughout the night. He spent the rest of day playing and watching TV; he ate a huge breakfast and drank Silk milk or juice all day. Other than the cough, his behavior was pretty much normal.
He's in bed now. I can hear the occasional cough from his room, but it's been quiet for an hour or so now. We were sent home with a Rx for the same steroid that he had at 5:30 this morning, and directions to use Tylenol for the fever, and a humidifier to assist breating. So far, I think he had a fever early this afternoon, but that was all. Certainly the cough persists, but hopefully there'll be no early morning awakenings tonight.
This morning at 4, I discovered Evan standing next to my side of the the bed. He was crying, and I recall that his mouth was open like he had something in it that he didn't like. He sounded horse and his speech was punctuated with croupy coughs. I'm looking for bodily fluids, but don't find anything. He says that he has to go potty, and when he comes back I sit up in bed, and pull him in with me. His heart seems to be beating triple-time, and he's complaining about his head. We're still trying to communicate between coughs, and so it takes some time to extract "dizzy" from him. His respirations are fast, too. Of course he'd be dizzy with that happening. I put my hands on his chest to feel for wheezing, and instead find that he's feverish.
Chris is of course fully activated by this time, and has brought in Evan's nebulizer. No, bad idea - it'll raise his heart rate, and we don't need that. I told Chris he'd better get dressed. I had Mother evaluate him. She found that the issue was in his airway rather than his lungs, and concurred that he needed to go to the hospital. Never the calm parent when something's wrong with his kid, Chris is now in full panic mode, racing around, throwing on clothes, fetching sweats for Evan. I admonished him to calm down and he did manage to do so - either due to pressure or exhaustion, I'm not sure - until we finally arrived back home.
I left Evan on the bed being evaluated by Mother while I dressed and brushed my teeth. After a quick search for my insurance card, we bundled boy into the car and headed for Littleton Adventist. By the time we got there, his breathing was approaching normal and I was suspecting croup.
Kids with croup are usually helped by taking them outdoors into the cold. The air temperature seems to relieve the inflammation that causes the croupy cough. The first time he had croup, by the time we got him to the clinic on a freezing night the attacks had largely subsided, and we felt a bit foolish having brought him in. But the doctor explained that we had inadvertantly applied one of the more reliable treatments.
He did have a good cough sitting on the admissions counter, which attracted the attention of the admitting nurse. She said that he was the third kid with croup on the shift, and that the other two kids were much sicker than Evan. They gave him oxygen and a steroid, and by 6:15 we were headed home. I could tell he was feeling better; he was getting ornery in the exam room.
We came home intending to go back to bed, all three of us. Although Evan insisted that he wasn't sleepy, it only took him about 5 minutes in bed between Chris and me to fall asleep. There he remained until 11:00 - five and a half hours. I concluded that he hadn't gotten much sleep the night before, and I do recall hearing coughs throughout the night. He spent the rest of day playing and watching TV; he ate a huge breakfast and drank Silk milk or juice all day. Other than the cough, his behavior was pretty much normal.
He's in bed now. I can hear the occasional cough from his room, but it's been quiet for an hour or so now. We were sent home with a Rx for the same steroid that he had at 5:30 this morning, and directions to use Tylenol for the fever, and a humidifier to assist breating. So far, I think he had a fever early this afternoon, but that was all. Certainly the cough persists, but hopefully there'll be no early morning awakenings tonight.
posted by Melanie Unruh-Bays at
10:29 PM
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