Saturday, September 20, 2008

Wild Man's first ER visit.

Well last night Mr. Genius and I had to take Wild Man to the ER for the first time.

Thankfully he is OK now, but I was scared to death for a little while.


Yesterday was a normal day, we weren't even outside very much. Which actually is unusual for us lately to not be outside much because of it getting cooler outside. Wild Man maybe coughed twice but nothing that concerned me at all.

At about 9:30 Wild Man suddenly woke up and started coughing really bad.

Now I feel that we are pretty experienced in the croup area. I think in the past year Wild Man has had croup at least 15 times. Even more the year before.


I went into the kitchen to get him some Robitussin and then went up to his room. He was sitting up drooling and his arms were shaking. (like when you are really cold and you have no control you are shivering so bad) and the cough it sounded like croup, but actually worse. It was a very deep and short cough. Like he didn't even have enough air to cough. His breath was very raspy and I could barely hear him cry standing next to him. I tried to get him to talk to me and he couldn't.

So I swooped him up and went into him bath to start a steam bath and when I sat him down his legs started shaking and he was still drooling. He was quite lethargic. At this point I started thinking this isn't croup I was thinking this was an asthma attack. We haven't had one before but with how much Wild Man gets croup the Dr's. were starting to question if he has asthma or not. So I brought him downstairs and called Mr. Genius, who had just gotten home from playing tennis. Told him to come in NOW!

Mr. Genius took Wild man up to take the steam bath and I called the Dr.

The Dr. told me to do the typical steam bath then stand in front of the freezer for 10 minutes and then back to the steam bath. When we took Wild Man downstairs to stand in front of the freezer, he started panicing. It probably didn't help that I was crying uncontrollably. So he wouldn't look in the freezer and he was breathing even faster and getting even more raspy.

With Mr. Genius and I thinking that this is more an asthma attack then croup we decided to go to the hospital.

My parents came over and we rushed off. I called my croup and asthma expert friend Beth and she could hear Wild Man breathing over the phone and said that the best place would be Vanderbilt children's. So we were on our way.

As we were driving he was having less trouble breathing but was still having trouble talking. I mentioned that maybe we should stop and walk around outside somewhere cuz maybe the cool night air was helping. We were in Smyrna and Mr. Genius pulled into the Smyrna hospital. We walked around for a second and then we prayed not knowing what to do. When we were done praying Wild Man asked to see the Dr. which we took to be the answer that God was giving us because if you saw the first reaction to when we told him we were going to the Dr. you would think this was a whole different child.

So in we went.

And 2 hours later then told us it was croup and gave him a very strong steriod.

I am still convienced that it was more then croup with the drooling and the shaking. But I guess we did everything we could and next time we will just drive around outside for awhile before we decide to go to the hospital.

7 comments:

Katie said...

Katie! I am glad to hear the story but of course even more glad to know that everyone is ok! How scary! Annie is queen of croup too and I know how scary it can be. We have never had an experience like that though! Our last visit to the ER was preceded by my complete freaking out and crying which of course freaked Annie out even more too so I know how that goes as well.

Katie said...

Thanks Katie. It not something you want to go through very often. That is for sure. The drooling and shaking is what put me over the edge. Now is he does that again I will hopefully be able to control myself better.

Jennylee said...

I'm sorry you all had a scary time last night! I would've been crying too! I hope Conner feels better soon!

Lori said...

It isn't fun when your little one can't breath. I'm sorry y'all had to visit the hospital. For your whole families sake I hope it doesn't end up being asthma. It isn't fun. How does he do with the steroids. It makes Taylor crazy. She becomes a little monster.

Lyndsey said...

Scary...glad he is better. We haven't had an experience like that but Isabella has had the steroids and she does get pretty crazy when she's on them. Fun times.

Katie said...

Thanks guys. And yes he is a crazy man on steroids. He woke up this morning running circles around the couch constantly asking for breakfast. I gave him a bowl of cheerios and within 45 seconds it was gone and he was asking for more. He only wants what he wants but the problem is he doesn't know what he wants.

Good times.

Ready for the steroids to be gone.

Ashley said...

Katie - That is so scary. I am so glad everyone is okay. We had to take Jackson to the ER onetime and I was terrified.