Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Cough, Cough, Wheeze

Poor Jeffy.

Rather quickly, his cold turned into a really bad cough. I'm not one to just rush to the doctor anytime he has a sniffle, but this time I was scared he wasn't getting enough oxygen. I took him into the medical clinic in the early afternoon and I'm really glad I did The doc heard him wheezing and said the first thing that needed to be done was to help him breathe more easily. So Jeffy got the second nebulizer treatment in his life. Man, he hates those. I don't especially enjoy it either.

I had to sit him in my chair in front of me, wrap my legs around his and pin down his arms so he couldn't move, then hold a mask over his face for fifteen minutes. Yeah, I was sweating when it was done. He put up quite a fight. And he's a lot bigger and stronger since the last time he had that done. Whew!

Then doc ordered a chest x-ray to make sure it wasn't pneumonia. I'm pregnant, so I couldn't go in, blah blah blah. Poor kid. That's the second time in a month that he's had to get an x-ray while being held down by strangers. It's not fun to sit outside and listen to your kid scream.

Then he got another nebulizer. Thankfully, I think he was pretty worn out from all the screaming and he just kind of laid there the whole time. He may have even fallen asleep. After all this he was breathing much more easily. Thank goodness. Doc said if the nebulizer didn't help much, she was going to send him over to the hospital. Yuck. The x-rays also showed there was no pneumonia, so we were spared that hassle.

Now I have to hold an inhaler with a mask over his face every four hours to help him breathe and force feed him some nasty steroids to break up the phlegm. But he's a lot happier and less clingy now so it's worth it.

We've all been running low on sleep with all the sicknesses, etc., and I was really looking forward to a whole night's sleep in my own bed, but alas, this was not to be. Jeffy and I had a sleepover on the hide-a-bed like we have been for a few nights. Even though he was feeling better, he wouldn't even close his eyes to go to sleep unless he could feel me next to him. Poor little guy. We both got more sleep than the night before, but it wasn't the restful night I had hoped for. Today is looking more promising and I'm not giving up hope!

My friend, Amber, said that a bunch of kids from playgroup were hit with a similar thing, so we think that's where it's spreading. I'm not sure if we're going to go this week. Good health might be worth less playtime. We'll see. In the meantime, Jeffy's doing better, and that's all I could really ask for.

4 comments:

Natalie said...

Jeffy seems to get sick all the time!! Ugh. Sad for the both of you!

Bethany said...

I know. Since we got sick at the beginning of the month, it's been pretty much non-stop. I just hope we're all healthy when new baby comes!!

Kestrel said...

Poor Jeffy. I wish I was there so I could watch him while you took a nap or something.

Isn't it freakish how strong they are? I swear some days I can barely change Toby's diaper with all the kicking and fighting and flailing. Sheesh.

Bethany said...

Yes, Jeffy has run around naked on more than one occasion because I can't hold him down long enough to put a new one on!