Sick

This past week was pretty crazy. On Tuesday night, we drove down to Edmonton for some shopping, dental appointments, a trip to the Temple, and some family time. Jonah, Elijah, and Riley all developed colds right before we left, but they never last long, and they didn't seem bad enough for us to stay home. Josh had to go either way, so we just kept the plan of all of us going. Josh and I soon got the sniffles, and all of us were a pretty sad sight.

By Thursday, Jonah had gotten much worse. He could hardly breath, refused to eat, would wake up at night and scream for half and hour or 45 minutes (which is VERY unusual for him), had a very wet cough, a very sore throat, coughed up crazy amounts of phlegm, and was just a very sick little boy. Not sure what else to do (and because i had no desire to spend an entire day in a hospital emergency room since we thought it was just a bad cold anyway), i took him to a walk-in clinic near the place we were staying. We got in to see the doctor quickly, but she was less than helpful. I told her everything above, and she listened to his lungs (through two shirts), looked in his ears (for half a second each, and at a bad angle), and pronounced them both clear, and that his sickness was mild croup, and all he needed was steam and to be fed upright. I wanted to demand that she take his temperature at least! but i'm still learning to be more pushy, and she was out quickly anyway.

I took him home, but my "mother's intuition" was blaring. Why didn't she take his heart rate? Temperature? look in his throat?? anything? Why didn't she tuck the stethescope under his shirt where she could hear it better? I could hear, even FEEL his lungs rattling every time he took breath, and he was way too miserable for it to be something so simple.

When Josh's mom arrived, we related all this to her, and having had bad past experiances, she jumped right on it. She called HealthLink (which never seems to occur to me, for some reason!) and described his illness, asking me questions and passing the answers on to them. They instructed us to check the base of his throat, the bottom of his breastbone, and the sides of his ribs for indentations as he breathes. He had them. She listened to his cough, and said in a three month old child it is terribly dangerous and we should get an ambulance right away.

I wasn't really feeling the need to be so dramatic, but i did feel confident now in going to Emergency. I was informed that there was a children's hospital in Edmonton, and thought it was the perfect place to go, since a lot of GPs don't know how to treat babies. We then drove out to Stollery and sat for a couple hours in emergency. For the city we actually moved through rather quickly, and when we finally saw a doctor, she was THE most wonderful doctor i've ever had! I was so impressed! She did all the proper things, took his temperature, oxygen sats, heart rate, listened to his lungs (over bare chest! ha!), looked in his nose and throat, and spent a couple minutes in his ears. She explained what she was checking for, what she'd found, how she'd reached her diagnosis, explained why she felt confident sending him home, and told us (repeatedly so we'd remember) what to look for if it gets worse (watch him like a hawk, she said) and to have a low tolerance if any of those things show up (ie.rush him back). The diagnosis was bronchiolitis (no, not bronchitis), and (i want to kick the walk-in clinic doctor) an ear infection! the bronchiolitis was not yet severe enough to keep him overnight, but she said it usually lasts 5-7 days, it looked like it was improving, not worsening, but if it does worsen, bring him back.

We got some pennicillin the next day and he looked and sounded so much better after the second dose. Even today, a week after he first got sick, he's still sleeping a LOT and has a cough and runny nose, but he's eating well again, sleeping well, and when he's awake, he's happy and content.

And through it all, I still had the wonderful blessing of attending the temple, which was particularly special this time because Josh's brother Landon was going through for the first time in preparation for his mission.

Since we got home, Josh, Elijah, and Riley have all been to outpatients for ear infections (Josh's is ear and sinus). Josh and Elijah's are rather severe, and they're in some pain. Riley seems fine, but he's got a small infection too and we don't want to see it get worse. I'm the only one left. I  haven't gone yet, but given the odds, i think i'm going to have to go soon.

Oh, and Happy Family Day!