You go to bed thinking about getting up early for work the next day, what we will have for dinner tomorrow night, did I lay all of Conner's clothes out for Daycare so Steve can get him ready in the morning........You never expect you are going to have a heart stopping awakening at 2 a.m....
We got that today.
At 2 a.m., I hear Conner start crying and coughing, so I wake Steve to go check on him because I had already been in there a couple of times when I had heard him fall out of bed Twice. That alone is weird because he rarely falls out of bed anymore.
I could hear what was going on, sounded like Conner had fallen out of bed a third time and Steve was putting him back in bed. Then Conner flopped to the ground and started flopping around like a fish out of water and coughing a croupy cough. I get up and run in there to find him hysterical. He wanted me to pick him up but he was violently flopping around I couldn't grab him. Then his croupy cough went to a whistling. My first thought was whooping cough. A sound I had only heard about. But wait, my kid was up to date on all his vaccinations, past the age of Whooping cough stage. Then it hit me, he is losing his airway and is flopping around because he is terrified. Steve ran and got the innebulizer and we administered Albuterol first thinking he was having an Asthma attack. Conner has cough Variant Asthma , but has not and should not lose his airway with this type of Asthma until it progresses into adulthood. He actually seemed to get worse with the Albuterol, so we started a second type of steroid treatment, while I sent Steve to go get dressed and find the car keys. No change with the second treatment, he would not talk and his lips were turning blue. While we were discussing whether to call an ambulance or drive, the child finally spoke and in a grasping voice said "Yes, Hospital," He was scared and knew we couldn't help him. We decided to drive to Deaconess Gateway.
They took him straight back and hooked him up to the machine to find that his oxygen level was only at 70% We got in a room and the nurses and a PA came immediately to his side. Then, the doctor was there in a matter of minutes. They could all hear the respiratory distress on our walk back to the room. Conner was very scared and a little combative for awhile. People were coming at him with wires, stethoscopes, and thermometers. That is scary for any age person. The doctor asked us some quick questions and then told us what he wanted to do, we agreed, and things happened very fast.
The doctor thinks it is croup. Croup is secondary to a Viral Infection. It simply means the swelling and Irritation and Inflammation of the Vocal Cords which usually happens from aggravation associated with drainage or a cough. When I put this child to bed Wednesday night, he was perfectly healthy.
No Coughing, just a runny nose. This is croup season. He has had croup a few times before but only had a barking cough, never an airway issue. The doctor said it was a Severe and Sudden case of Croup. Most people with croup don't develop the airway issue. By the time we got to the ER , his airway was like the size of a straw and his whistling and whooping had
worsened. They said we never would have got his airway back at home and that the treatments we did probably aggravated it more. He needed the ER to turn things around for him.
They gave him a Shot of Decadron and then Epinephrine through his innebulizer to shrink his vocal cords and open his airway. Within 20 minutes of the epinephrine he was much calmer because he could finally breathe. We stayed for 4 hours for observation. There is a possibility that it could close off again in the first 12 hours before the decadron gets a good chance to start healing him.
He is doing great right now. He was such a trooper in the hospital. He was exhausted when we got home. He still has the croupy cough and we are waiting to find out what kind of Viral Infection he has that caused the croup. So far, no fever. He loved it when he realized he had his own hospital bed and he got to control the volume on the TV. Then, he got bored and found some rubber gloves to play with.
Around 6 a.m., the doctor came in to check on him and decide if the medicine was turning things around.
Conner saw him, knew he was the man in charge and said "Can I go Home NOW?"
How can anyone say NO to that?
We were discharged and instructed to return if it happened again.
Thanks for all of the phone calls and texts we got today. We appreciate all the concern.
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| Right before discharge. Feeling much better and breathing fine. Realizing it has been a long night and he is really TIRED!! |
