When we got home from our trip to the Tetons Monday, Elodie sounded sick, with a headache and stuffy nose. Tuesday, she had a runny nose and by Tuesday night, Callen had caught it and woke up almost every hour all night long. Wednesday, he had a runny nose and cough but seemed otherwise okay. Wednesday night, we were in his room like ten or fifteen times between 8pm and 11pm. I heard him around 5:30am and when went into get him, his breathing just didn't seem right at all. Callen was asking for (coconut) milk so we went downstairs to get it and then brought it up to sit in our room to drink it. I asked Dave, "how long has he been like this?" and Dave said, "for about an hour." I was very concerned. His chest was heaving in and out rapidly and he sounded wheezy. After sitting with both me and Dave, Callen threw up his bottle of milk. After cleaning him up and everything else up, we went down stairs and it was 7am. I was still worried because he seemed so lethargic and I knew that was something to be concerned about. I was debating whether to wait to take him to his doctor at 8am when they opened or just take him to the ER, and if the ER, Avista or Children's. I finally decided Children's hospital so I ran upstairs to change quickly and gather a food bag from him since I knew from experience to prepare to be there awhile. Then we were off.
There was someone checking in when we got there so I had to wait. Then I checked in with his insurance card and the lady said the respiratory therapist would come listen to him to see if he could jump ahead in line. Well the respiratory therapist came out and didn't even listen to him. He just took us straight back, had Callen stand on the scale to be weighed, and then took us into a room where a nurse was already waiting for us. They immediately asked me questions, as we undressed him to put a pulse-ox on him, I realized how bad Callen was and that I should have taken him in much sooner. The muscles under his rib cage would suck up and under his ribs, the skin between his ribs sucked in. He looked like a starving child from a third-world country. God totally protected Callen because he could have gone into respiratory failure before we got there. Anyhow, after they gave him a neubulizer treatment, he got a chest x-ray to rule out anything more serious. He was so good and sat exactly how he was supposed to. I think he was just so sick that he did it. He also oral steroids, and albuterol inhaler and the doctor said he sounded better but she was still unhappy with how he looked. Plus, he had gotten really hot and lethargic after his treatment. So she ordered a double round of neubulizer treatment and another albuterol inhaler. After 6 hours there, he was finally discharged with orders to take albuterol every 4-6 hours, including through the night, for the next 48 hours and oral steroids twice per day for four days.
He got a puppy from the x-ray tech. You can almost see the blue oxygen tube that they taped to the blanket.
Hard to take a good photo of him without me in it when he sat on my lap for the entire 6 hours.
Today he seemed much better and was running around again. He's been taking his medicines like a champ.
can't stay still for a photo
This is what happens when you have an older sister. You ask to wear tutus and crowns.
He had a follow-up check-up at his doctors office tonight and she said he sounded good. She said to let him run around a little so that the gunk would loosen up in his chest because the only way it was going to get out was for him to cough.
He had to wear a mask at the doctor's office because he had a cough (whooping cough risk).
He wanted to wear his mask home.
So when we got home, I let him go on a walk around the block, but I guess it might have been a little too much because he cough, cough, cough, cough, cough and then threw up all over me in front of all the neighbors. Awesome. The doctor at Children's had said that it is common for children in respiratory distress to throw up so we went home to give him his medicine.
