The Croup

Lincoln came down with what was probably the Croup last Tuesday. Crazy how that coincided with my last post...

His breathing had been a little funny - you could see him work at it although he didn't act like he was struggling, he wasn't wheezing, and there was no cough. But, a couple hours after he went to bed, he woke up with some seal bark coughs and was wheezing so much that you could hear him from across the room. The coughing scared him.

We called the nurse line to see if we should go to the Med Clinic, which was only open another half an hour and which has doctors that have no idea about many things kids, or if we should wait and go to his regular doc first thing in the morning. (We didn't even think of the Pediatric ER since it didn't seem that bad.)

The nurse was AWESOME and said that she could hear his breathing over the phone and it sounded just like the Croup. She said that most cases never get seen by a doctor because there's not much the doctor can do - unless it gets really bad. She was so informative and comforting. She told us to sleep in the same room as him to make sure he didn't get worse and she explained what worse would sound like, in terms of bad enough to go right away to the ER.

We were all up basically all night because he was scared of the cough and just wanted comfort (and we didn't do great with sleeping when he did because we were worried about him). I called the doctor's office in the morning to make sure we shouldn't be doing anything differently and they wanted to see him since it was respiratory.

We saw Dr. Fischer - yes the same melodramatic doctor I vowed never to see again after Lincoln was really little. But, we wanted to be seen and I wasn't SURE he was the one - maybe Dr. Fischer was the woman doctor that Alanna really likes. (Not true, but worth considering so we could get seen.)

Dr. Fischer said that he would agree that Lincoln had the Croup but that only his upper airway was inflamed and usually with the Croup all of the respiratory organs were inflamed. So, he prescribed prednisolone (kid predinisone) and told us that if he didn't sound better when the meds kicked in (6-8 hours or so) or if he sounded worse, to either go directly tot he ER or to go get him x-rayed - which he was going to "order" along with the script. The thought there was that Lincoln could have something lodged in his throat that was causing all of this. (Never mind the little boy at daycare that sounded funny enough on Monday that I made a mental note to watch Lincoln for a funny cough.)

Not only did it get better within a few hours Lincoln seemed basically symptom free. He still acted off/sick but no funny wheezing or the seal bark cough. He did have a lot of funk around eating (although he's also working on getting his top two year molars through) and was irritable but nothing scary.

So, because we were so focused on his breathing and getting him to eat anything plus getting him to eat or drink milk so we could give him his prednisone, I totally missed that the prednisone could and would eat up his stomach and his diaper area. So, after a couple/few days of feeding him fruit juices and fruit and not much else he was raw and I was feeling totally awful since my poor decisions directly caused it!!!

Since we/I realized what happened (with only one more dose of prednisolone left) we have been giving him twice daily doses of Florastor, only water to drink and no more fruits (limited dairy and veggies) his diaper rash has started to heal. This morning it looked MUCH better than the last two days. I hate it when my bad decisions or lack of paying attention causes him such grief/pain! :o(

Last night after school he was a perfectly behaved, loving, sweet boy. I can't get enough of this side of him! Then, he slept through the ENTIRE night and woke up still with a perfect disposition. He was perfectly adventurous and rambunctious, but he wasn't into challenging or pushing his limits plus he was happy and chatty. Super cute and sweet and a welcome way to start the day!