Sick, Sick, Sick

We have been sick at our house this week.  We started with the sniffles last week, but Justin woke up Monday morning barking and wheezing and we knew it was time for our first night trip to the ER.  Fortunately it was already 5 am, which for us is actually closer to morning than for most.  We woke Travis, who was ready for adventure, piled into the car and headed up to the closest hospital we knew has a pediatric ER.  All of us went because we weren't sure Justin would be calm enough by himself in the backseat with only one of us driving, and truthfuly, I knew if we woke up Travis and took him with us we would be sure to get a good nap out of him later that day.  So we all arrived at the ER and I walked in and Justin did his bark cough and the nurses at triage said, "Ahhh, croup."  Fortuanately it was a quiet night and we were assessed and in a room quickly.  I think it helped that Justin has a (repaired) heart defect.  That sort of thing scares doctors when it comes to breathing issues.

Because it was so quiet, things happened quickly and a respitory therapist was in to give Justin a breathing treatment within a half hour.  It had been a while since he has had a mask on his face so he required singing therapy to get though it.  First I started with his favorite, Jesus Loves Me, and he decided to skip his usual "muscles" when Jesus is strong.  Then I moved on to "Jesus Loves the Little Children" and by then he was mostly calm, but the therapist said, "Oh, that's my favorite song" so I kept going.  She had had a busy night and somehow I think the song was for all of us.

After the breating treatment Justin got some steroids and we hunkered down in our little room in the ER to make sure Justin's breathing improved.  If it hadn't improved, we would have been in for a trip down to Texas Children's.  The doctor went and got Travis and Randy from the waiting room and explained what was happening.  We had to wait four hours to ensure Justin could breathe and didn't get another flare up.

So we waited.  I had thrown in some breakfast bars and cups of water for the boys so we started with that.  The plan was four people, four bars.  Sippie cups with water for the boys, plan to get coffee for mommy and daddy.  Well, Travis is doing some growing so he ate two bars, Justin ate his one, and Randy and I split the last one.  Except Justin ate half of my half.  And we still hadn't found coffee yet.

The boys were the hit of the ER.  The doctor brought them each a silly band (dinosaur shapes).  Then we cranked up the TV and watched a completely unprecedented amount of television over the next two and a half hours.  During that time the doctor brought in popscicles for the boys.  At 8:30 am.  What do you say?  Travis is loving the ER by this time!

Finally Randy's stomach was rumbling and we were nodding off to the tunes of Handy Manny.  (A marathon, none the less...)  Justin was feeling better and crawling around on the bed and pulling his pulse ox monitor off, setting off the alarms.   The nurse brought another pulse ox monitor and Randy headed out to search for breakfast and coffee.  He returned, I drank my first sip, and the nurse came in and said that we were free.  We got our discharge instructions and we headed to the pharmacy to fill Justin's prescription.  Good thing...the boys were starting to eye our muffins!

Justin is much better and Travis is recovering from his cold too.  But they gave it to me.  Affection can backfire sometimes.  Especially when it comes in licks.