Tuesday, May 08, 2012

Holy Croup!

So remember this busy yet blissful day?  It supposedly ended at 11:30pm with me staring at my clock while laying in bed anticipating getting up at 5:45 in the morning to head to the airport and fly to Pennsylvania with both kids by myself.


Yeah...well, that isn't exactly what happened.

Little G had woken up earlier that morning with a scratchy voice. I thought about pulling him from school that day, but he seemed perfectly fine by breakfast, so off we went.

When I picked him up from school, his voice seemed to be weak again and I just chalked it up him having used it all day at school.

We put him to bed with his water, which we don't usually do these days to keep him from peeing in his bed overnight.  Around 10:30, when I was finally sitting down to write that one email that I needed to get to before heading to bed, I heard him start coughing.  It was a horrible cough that sounded very dry and painful.

By 11:00 I decided to go into his bedroom with some honey and a sippy cup of water.  My husband came with me and Little G weakly sat up in bed crying.  Before I could even ask him if he wanted any honey, he pushed me away and squeaked, "NO, I don't want that!".  So I suggested that we go sit near the shower.  But my husband misunderstood my intentions and asked Little G if he wanted to TAKE a shower.  Shockingly, he said, 'yes', so we headed into the bathroom but when we turned on the water, he started to freak out.  We tried to explain that we were just going to sit near the water, but he was beside himself and then he threw up.

My husband kept saying he was going to take him to the hospital and I was about to suggest that we just call the doctor when the scariest thing I have ever encountered in 2.9 years of parenting happened.  Little G stopped breathing and his lips turned bluish gray and his eyes glazed over.  It was only for a second, but I immediately shouted at my husband to take him to the hospital NOW!!

We got him downstairs and calmed him down by having him watch Thomas on the iPad.  His breathing was getting a little bit better.  Luckily, I had already finished packing for our trip in the morning so there was a bag already packed with water/extra clothes/entertainment for them to take with them to the hospital.  We carried him out to the car and loaded him in his car seat.

And then I did what was probably the hardest thing I have done yet as a mother.  I stood in my driveway and watched my husband drive away with my son in the back seat, completely unable to do anything further from that point forward.  The tricky thing with my son, is that when he is upset he does NOT want anyone to touch him or hug him or rub his back or cuddle with him, so there wouldn't have been much I could do anyway...but still, letting go at that moment pretty much wrenched my heart out of my body.

I went back inside and tried to go to sleep, but instead I lay awake desperate for any updates.  My husband texted that they had arrived and that Little G had gotten much better even on the car ride there; so much so that he felt a little silly taking him into the hospital.  But into the hospital they went.

In the end, it turns out he had croup, which is viral and causes your airways to clench up.  It comes on at night and the right thing to do is to either get to a place where you can sit near some steam, or wrap your kid in a blanket and take them outside to breathe cooler air.

Little G received two steroid shots in his legs to help his air passages stay open and they monitored him for a while.  They finally got home at 3:00 in the morning with instructions to keep an eye on him and permission to take our flight the next day.

After only a couple of hours of sleep we got up and got ourselves out the door and to the airport.


My biggest concern with flying by myself at this point was his penchant for having epic tantrums when it comes time to turn off the electronic devices while landing.  I was so afraid he would have another breathing episode.




Turns out, he was too tired to protest, so we survived the flight, landed and met my mom and headed back to her house.  Little G fell asleep on the way home in the car, which is pretty unheard of for him.


When we finally arrived, he took some time to greet the doggies and then we headed upstairs where he napped for four hours.

So now you know what last Tuesday was really like.  After all of the insanity of the day and all the things that had to get done (a good portion of which weren't included in the photo recap since they fit into the portions of the day that didn't fall on the half hour) the real excitement hadn't even started yet.

I am so proud of my Little G.  He was so brave and such a trooper.  And I am so thankful that he was feeling so much better so quickly.  In fact, the next day, you wouldn't have even known he had been sick save for a squeaky voice that lasted for a few days.

Have you had the croup in your house yet?

2 comments:

  1. Aw :( I have a very clear memory of croup from when I was about 4 years old. It's horrible! My mother made me breathe steam from a bowl of eucalyptus infused boiling water with my head under a blanket. At the time I was furious with her, but now I realise that it of course helped :P Poor Little G! Glad he is feeling better now. 

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  2. Tuesday....I hate Tuesdays.
     
    Baby Butter doesn't like to cuddle either. That's hard on moms that need to cuddle. We have to run the humidifers in our house most of the year due to Butter's asthma issues. I feel your pain. Glad it wasn't worse than it was.

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