I had this blog all mapped in my head to discuss our adventure to Children's Medical Center ER on Saturday night for a really terrible cough. Then, before I could eek out the details, we had a whole other ailment pop up. For those interested, here's the saga.
We all know that Walt has some breathing issues. Really, it's mostly not a big deal. He has plenty of meds (breathing machine, etc) and typically we take care of this just fine on our own. Walt almost always has a little cough and if he has ANY drainage whatsoever (drool from teeth, snot from allergies, just regular ol' unexplained toddler snot) it gets kinda phlegmy and he has a cough. Really, it's no big deal.
Saturday night we put Walt to bed just like normal and he coughed a bit (not unusual). Normally he just needs to get comfy and once he falls asleep it's nothing. Well, the coughing escalated... and escalated.. until he was pretty much coughing non-stop and getting very "barky". I went upstairs to check on him, gave him some water, and right as I laid him back down, he coughed so hard he puked. That was enough to send off my mom radar. So, Chris and I packed up the car and headed to the ER. The experience was a pleasant one considering all the circumstances (it was an hour after Walt's bedtime and the clock continued to tick, he didn't feel good, etc). In a matter of an hour, we were diagnosed with Croup, given a steroid, and on our way.
Walt went right to sleep when we got home, but woke up around 2 a.m. coughing again. Chris and I took turns soothing him, then I ultimately ended up in the bathroom with a hot shower running to steam the snot out of him! By Sunday afternoon, he was doing really good.
Monday when we woke up, Walt was a happy camper. I pulled him out of his crib laughing, then he looked at me, got very upset, then proceeded to heave in my arms. Not particularly wanting fresh vomit on my work clothes, I set him on the ground and rubbed his back. He really didn't throw up much, but just heaved a lot. After that little episode, he was fine. We ate breakfast and sent him to school. Not two hours later, we got the call from school that Walt puked twice. Mother of the Year!
To make a long story longer... Chris kept him home on Monday. No fever and lots of TLC and he seemed fine. Yesterday he got up happy and starving. He inhaled two waffles, sent him to school, and received the 10 a.m. call AGAIN. More puking. Took Walt to Dr. G, who was surprised there was no fever or the big D. Dr. G gave us some anti-nausea medicine and said hang in there :)
As a friend of mine put it, Walt escaped Hand Foot and Mouth disease that was a pandemic in his classroom last week, but ended up with Croup and some nasty stomach something. Next time, can I please have the HF&M disease?!