Levi has croup.... don't know what that is? Basically it is this terrible terrible sore throat your baby gets from a virus and it makes parents feel absolutely awful.
Last Monday I took Barret to the store with me to get a few things for Daddy's birthday the next day. Levi was taking a nap when we left for the store and when we got home everything just seemed to be going down hill. It was a rainy day, and of course when we got home from the store the rain started coming down even harder, leaving us to dodge the huge puddles in the back yard as we sprinted to the deck. We got Barret ready for bed and he came running in to Steve shouting 'bubu, bubu'. Steve went into our room where Levi had been napping, and he was red, sweaty, and screaming at the top of his lungs, but you could barely hear him because his throat was so sore. We tried to calm him, but he wouldn't stop. We could feel him breathing, it felt like his ribs were rattling. I didn't want to be the frantic mom who just jumped in the car and took him to the E.R. so I calmly suggested that maybe I go after I tried to nurse him and changed his diaper. Steve just laughed a little because he knew that was all that I wanted to do....rush to the E.R.
So, I said good night to Barret, and we headed for the E.R. He cried the whole way there, and then we had to wait about 45 minutes before we even saw a nurse. When they finally admitted us the doctor came in and just watched him breathe. I was much more upset about it than the staff seemed to be (which is to be expected) as they casually walked in and out of the room. The doctor decided on croup, so to treat it there they were going to give him a steroid and then try a breathing treatment to help open up the passage way. After they got everyone on the same page we had to wait about an hour before they came in with the steroid. So of course, I had gotten Levi to finally fall asleep and had to wake him up so they could shoot some nasty smelling liquid down his throat. His heart rate was a lot higher than they expected it to be after this so we had to wait an hour or so before they could try the breathing treatment on him.
The breathing treatment made me want to cry. Basically I had to hold Levi in my lap, hold a gas mask over his face and listen to him scream louder than I have ever heard, while this mist was blowing in his face. He couldn't stop coughing and his throat sounded more horse than it had before. After two minutes of this, the respiratory tech came in and checked his vitals. We then waited another hour before doing the whole treatment for a second time. They concluded that it didn't seem to be helping him much but prescribed the steroid for him to take for the next four days and then sent us home. Super!
So the next four days were basically filled with sleep for our little Levi. He does seem a lot better, bust still has a pretty chesty cough from time to time.
But hey, now he can say that he went to the E.R. one night just like his big brother :)
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