Croup Attack

Gabriel gave me a good scare yesterday afternoon. He had been sounding a little croupy for a couple of days, but not coughing so much as just sounding hoarse. He was a little lathargic all morning, so I told him to lay down during quiet time. Being my sweet, compliant child, he did lay down and fall asleep.

When I woke him up to go get Todd he was still pretty lathargic, and his color was bad. His hands and feet were pale and cold. He was laboring to breathe and not getting enough oxygen. I took him into the bathroom and steamed it up for him while I called the doctor's office. I was pretty nervous about leaving him in the bathroom alone, but I couldn't hear with the shower running.

The Dr. said to bring him right in. So I grabbed some warm juice and a lollypop (some of the best croup remidies) and opened the car window for him. Then we sat in the office and waited. This was making me nuts. I pulled out of the steamy bathroom to bring him here, and we're just sitting here! His color was still bad, but his breathing was less labored so I just sat there, staring at him, waiting.

Finally, there was a knock on the exam room door. In walks a young girl I've never seen before. She explained that she was a P.A. student and asked to look at him before the doctor came in. I was torn here - if the doctor is sitting in his office doing nothing, I want him in here looking at my kid. It's not like we're talking about an ear infection or something non-threatening here...but if the doctor is still with another patient, than having this girl in here is better than nothing, and she should be able to tell if he needs a shot of steriods or not. So, I said sure, go ahead.

Well, it turns out that she couldn't tell much of anything, except that his ears look good. She kept asking me things like "So your real concern is his cough?" And in my head I'm thinking, "No, my real concern is the fact that he is bordering on turning blue!!!" But, like I said, he was breathing easier now so I was gracious and said "Uhh, yeah".

When she came back with the doctor, he started asking me questions about wheezing and his Singular. At this point, I was starting to question my own sanity. All my kids have breathing issues. They all get wheezy and they all get croupy and I can tell the difference...I used to be able to tell the difference...I pretty sure he's croupy...I think...maybe... But then the doctor listened to Gabe and had him cough. He turned to the student and said "That is all upper respiratory, you can tell because it sounds the same no matter where you listen, and that cough is definitely croupy."

So, I'm not loosing my mind. Yet, the doctor doesn't seem as concerned as I am about the attack. He then explained croup to me, very thoroughly. I was a little irritated (don't you think I already know this...I do have three kids), but I have to give him credit since he isn't our regular doctor and his explanation was pretty good.

At the end of his spiel, he made a point I hadn't thought of. If Gabe had such a bad attack at nap, we were probably in for a really rough night. He gave us some Prednisolone and told me to get Gabe's room all steamed up at least an hour before bed. He said hopefully by the middle of the night the Predisolone would be working and between that and the steam we might make it through the night okay.

We had to buy a new vaporizer, which at $60 made me turn a little blue! We decided to put Gabe on the air mattress in our room to be sure that we heard him if had any trouble. We heard his little croupy cough on and off during the night, but it was never more than a little bark and he slept quite soundly. So in the end, I am glad that he had that nap time attack. Otherwise we may have ended up at the ER last night.