We ended up taking Cole into the ER last night at midnight, after he started having a lot of trouble breathing.
Turns out he has croup, although he never was making the “barking” noises, that is a classic symptom of croup. He sounded more like he was wheezing, and even a nurse said he sounded like he was breathing like an asthmatic.
After trying two rounds of the steroid breathing treatments, they weren’t working, and Cole was running a fever of 104.5- so the Dr.’s decided to admit him, and test him for secondary infections & the flu as well. They said his ear was really inflamed & thought he may have had an ear infection too.
It was a miserable night- they poked him, prodded him, drew blood, gave him shots, (they wanted to do an IV line, and I asked them not to unless it was absolutely necessary. I hate IV’s, and they agreed to just give him the shots, but at least he wasn’t tied down to an IV line- he would have hated that more) , and he was just so sick! I was in tears the entire time. Finally at 5 am, his fever went to 101, and it seemed like the treatments were finally starting to work.
Joe went home to rest, and I stayed w/ Cole until 9am; dozing off and on, until the pediatrician came to check up on him. Fortunately, he was much better but he still has the raspy, stridor, breathing, but the doctors say it isn’t in his chest, or lungs, but in his upper respiratory system, which isn’t as bad.
Cole’s doctor said they wanted us to stay until Sunday for observation, but said we could take him home today since we live so close to the hospital, but stressed we needed to watch him very carefully. Evidently croup can come back, even when you think it is under control, and it is worse at night than during the day.
The pediatrician today said he didn’t think he had an ear infection, but it was the high fever that was causing his ears to be inflamed, and all his blood work came back fine- viral- but fine.
That is how croup is caught- from a virus. One nurse said 100 kids could have the same cold from a virus, and about 2 or 3 will go on to develop croup. The doctors and nurses said once kids are about 4, it is very rare for them to develop it, since their airway passages become larger. Obviously adults don’t get croup, but when adults develop the virus, they get it in the form of laryngitis.
So, what an ordeal! I have never been that scared before regarding my child’s health. I still am worried he still has the raspy stuff, but they say his steroid medication will help.
Before we took him in last night, I was reading about croup on Dr. Sears’ website. I was very impressed that everything I had read on the website regarding croup and the treatment of it, was what the hospital, doctor’s, and nurses were doing.
When we were deciding if we should take Cole in, I also placed a call into my local children’s hospital, which has a free 24 hour nurse help line. She actually listened to Cole’s breathing, and told me it was croup over the phone, and to take him to the ER. I feel like we had excellent care, and the doctors and nurses did everything they could to make Cole (and Mom and Dad) comfortable, and they did a very thorough job in making sure Cole didn’t have any other causes for his high fever.
Even though Cole’s “barking” symptoms weren’t quite as described, if your child sounds like he is wheezing, having trouble breathing, is breathing faster, drooling excessively, or the area right above his breastbone is caving in while breathing, or his ribs are really working while breathing, take him in. Cole had all these sypmtoms. We obviously waited too long. Joe really picked up on the abnormal breathing, but since Cole didn’t have that barking seal noise, it just threw me. I thought he just had a lot of congestion in his throat, but looking back now, it was more than congestion. No one said it, but I think Cole’s breathing was getting so bad, since we had waited almost 2 days to take him in.
At any rate, I have been listening to his breathing tonight and he sounds so much better than yesterday. What a difference 24 hours can make. I hope he is over the worst of it, and now we can all get back to resting and healing.
Druing all of this, Ryan was spending the night at his grandparents with his cousins last night, so I guess if this had to happen, at least it was last night. Ryan’s uncle and grandpa took the kids today ice skating, window shopping at a train store, to lunch, to play miniture golf, and then a train ride at the mall! Ryan was in heaven. I think he had the best day ever. We are so lucky to have such wonderful family near by to help out in cases like this. It helps so much, in not having to worry about the other child, so we could focus on Cole.
