It's Tricky to Rock around the Clock

Tricky, tricky, trick-ay...

Our sweet Dosen's sickness de jour is respiratory distress. I don't know what the real name for it is, but it starts with a runny nose and more often than not progresses into a horrid wheezing, laboring breathing state with a side helping of infected ears. When we got his referral information at 4 months old, he was struggling with this respiratory stuff then, and when we traveled to get him 4 months later, he still had it.

After a day with the preliminary symptoms, Sunday morning the rest followed. You know it had to be Sunday because no docs are open on Sunday. We got out his bff--the nebulizer--and went to work on the breathing treatments. I wish I had a pic to post because he's so cute with the mask on. He HATED it at first, but over a year later, he doesn't care at all.

The worst is a night, though, and last night was no exception. I was afraid to leave him alone in his room for fear he'd quit breathing all together. We've called the ER plenty of times, and they usually just talk us off the ledge.

I got the first appointment I could this morning after our very long and sleepless night, and after just a quick once over from the dr. I could tell that she was concerned. We really love our doc, so what she says goes usually. She immediately ordered a steroid and breathing treatment for right then and there, and after she listened to him, she wanted us to do another one before we could leave. Good grief!

She was finally comfortable enough with his progress to discuss our path to wellness. Breathing treatments every hour for 3 hours, then every 3 hours round the clock for the next 24. Holy zopenex, Batman. She followed all that up with, "And if he's not doing better, our only other choice is to admit him."

ADMIT HIM??? I'm sure I looked stunned because we were talking about the happiest kid in the entire practice (I'm just guessing about that, but he was quite happy). She said to go ahead and choose which hospital, and she was on call tonight.

So far, so good, though. We've followed her orders to the letter, so I'm waiting until the next round at midnight. Jake is taking the 3am shift. It's like we have an infant again!

While we do love our doctor, did she realize what this super duper plan would do to his little body? I promise you he hasn't stopped talking since noon. He hasn't been still since then either. He is furious and thrilled with everything at the same time. When he couldn't decide what to do with his limbs, he just started flailing around until a new thought hit him. It was so annoying at first, but the longer it went on, the funnier it got. This must be what having a wheezy monkey on crack would be like.

We're sure praying that our monkey bounces back tomorrow so we can steer clear of any hospitals. He's a strong little boy, so we feel very confident that things will be just fine. We'll be sure to share the good news.