Chalk Another One Up for Jack

ER visit, that is. I was sick all last week with a horrible sinus infection, and though I tried my hardest not to breathe on the kids or share drinks with them, Jack got sick anyway. He was fine when he went to sleep on Friday, but when I went to check on him before I went to bed he was coughing like a seal and struggling to breathe. He has had croup several times before, so I tried all the home remedies - taking him out in the cold air, holding him in the bathroom with a steamy shower going, rubbing medicine on his chest, putting a warm washrag on his throat - but nothing was helping and he was getting worse. So I took him to the ER where they immediately got him in and gave him a steroid shot and three breathing treatments. After each treatment, he seemed to be able to breathe easier, but the raspy breathing, the strider, kept coming back.

The doctor decided to admit him to keep an eye on his oxygen saturations and make sure he was okay. They decided to do a chest x-ray. Because I am pregnant, I couldn't go in, so the nurse came in and got him and took him to the x-ray room. He was asleep when she picked him up, but pretty soon I heard him crying for mommy. It was so sad - I wanted to go to him so badly.

They finally moved him upstairs to the pediatric unit at around 6:00 in the morning where they monitored his oxygen. We were both exhausted by that time and slept for about an hour before breakfast (I took these photos on my cell phone, so they aren't the best quality).


Jack was excited to eat some pancakes, but couldn't finish the two huge ones they brought for him:


Jeff arrived at the hospital around 9:00 after dropping Makele off at Taryn and Jeremy's house. A huge thank you to Jeremy for watching Makele even when Taryn left for the afternoon.

I made a quick trip home to shower and grab some things to keep Jack entertained because he said he was "boring." Which reminds me - sometime during the night when he was receiving one of his breathing treatments, he told me, "Mommy, I just cough, I'm not sick - we can go home." Which was funny because he was the one that told me before I took him in that he was "sick and needs to go to the doctor."

We passed the day coloring, reading books, playing with trains and building puzzles. He did amazingly well for having to be stuck in a hospital bed all day. Finally around 3:00 the pediatrician on call gave him the okay to go home. He couldn't have been more happy to get the heck out of there!

His barky cough is pretty much gone now and he seems to be doing much better - thank heavens!