My little boy has been coughing and running a fever. He had the problem for a couple of weeks, but got better. Then last week it all came back again.
Sunday morning when I got him up to take him to church, he had thrown up in his bed. I kept him home and decided to take him to the Minute Clinic that is close to my house.
The nurse put a little thing on his finger to read his oxygen level while she listened to his breathing. She shook her head. “I’m sorry, but I hear a lot of crackling in his lungs and his oxygen levels are below normal,” she said. “You need to take him to the Children’s hospital.”
“Couldn’t I just take him to see his doctor tomorrow morning?” If it wasn’t urgent I didn’t want to spend the extra money to take him to the ER.
“Oh no!” she looked frightened, “You need to take him right now. I’m not going to charge you anything.” She didn’t say he had pneumonia, but she didn’t rule it out as a possibility when I asked about it.
The ER was super crowded. It reminded me of how they might portray it in a movie. I told the nurse that attended us my story of having been to the Minute Clinic. He listened to my little boy and marked the chart “Urgent.”
After undergoing a breathing treatment and x-rays, we finally got a diagnosis–acute respiratory airway disease, an ear infection, and sinusitis. The nurse gave him a steroid and told me that he would like it initially, but that it had a really bad after taste. Sure enough, Little Jason kept scratching at his tongue.
“It really does have a horrible after taste,” the nurse repeated. “Wondering how I know?” I nodded. “I had a little boy spit it right in my face one time. Yep, it has a horrible aftertaste.”
“Eww,” was all I could say.
“Oh, you think that’s bad,” she continued. “When I was first out of college I worked in labor and delivery. . . .” She said that she was checking some poor lady when her water broke and she got splattered all over her face. And, yep, she tasted the fluid. “It’s sweet,” she said.
“Eww,” I repeated, laughing partly because it was funny and partly in surprise and horror. It was good to laugh in the midst of my worry over my son.
We have been giving him the breathing treatments, steroid, and antibiotic for a few days now. He seems to be doing well, but I can still hear him wheezing. We will see his doctor this morning. I know these issues are fairly common, but I would appreciate your prayers!
I’m linked with Raising Homemakers, iFellowship, and Women in the Word Wednesdays.
Sorry to hear that. Poor baby. My baby niece also has to have breathing treatments 3 times a day. I’ll pray he feels better very soon.
Oh, poor little dear — I do hope he gets better the soonest! 🙂
Thinking of you Hun and sending you a whole bunch of positive thoughts & energies. Keep us posted on your little fella…wishing him well x
Praying for your little sweetheart!
Poor Jason Jr.! The prednisone should work in a few days, but, yes, it is NASTY stuff! We’ve learned to pay $2.99 and get the raspberry flavor added. Judah has asthma, and he gets severe attacks EVERY time he’s sick. The hardest part is dealing with their behavior while they’re on steroids. That albuterol is personality-altering! Prayer, patience, and lots of children’s TV shows will get you through this. You just do what it takes to keep them calm so the steroids can do their stuff. 🙂 Hope he bounces back quickly. This has been such a bad cold & flu season!
Esther, he has the “Etheridge curse” the wheezing, coughing, ear,throat thing sure runs in the family.
He will partially grow out of it but never completely.
I sure feel for him, it’s worse at his current age.
Saying a prayer right now for your son and also for his momma as she cares for him!
Oh my gosh – I am gagging over that lady tasting the lady’s water crud. YUK!!!!!
Even if these issues are fairly common doesn’t mean it’s less horrible for you. I’ll pray for quick healing.
Praying for you, Jason, and Little Jason….it’s a scary thing when situations like these arise…..Psalm 37:25.
Oh goodness, that sounds awfully scary. Nothing as scary as seeing your baby sick. It is just so helpless to not be able to cure them yourself… Of COURSE you are in my prayers. Thanks for letting us all know, so we could help:)
Ezra has asthma too… hope you’re surviving the “roid-rage”. That sideeffect from the oral steroids is no fun! ARAD is the early diagnosis that precedes asthma… at least it was with Ezra and the other kids I know, they can’t definitively tell you your kiddo has asthma till they are a bit older, but ARAD means they have the symptoms of asthma. I hope lil’J is just cold related and that his breathing issues were a one-time event 🙂
Stopping by from iFellowship and praying with and for you and your little guy!
Definitly praying he’ll get better– but I couldn’t help but appreciate the two nurses and the attention and care they seemed to give to you and your little guy.
I am so sorry to hear that he isn’t feeling well. I hope that the meds start working and it clears up quickly. My oldest two have asthma, so I empathize with what you are going through. I hope that his appointment goes well this morning, please keep us posted on how things are going
Oh my, that poor nurse with the water breaking in her face!
Praying your little boy is better soon.
Happy iFellowship Day!
I know what you mean. I remember what I felt like when I took Makayla in for dehydration due to what I thought was the flu and it turned out to be appendicitis! Wow. Anyway, its tough to have our little ones feeling so bad. I will certainly be praying for the little guy and his mommy because this stuff is hard on mommies! 🙂
I will pray that little Jason feels better very soon. Yuck on the water breaking in the nurses face!!
Esther – Praying for your little man – hope he’s better real soon and back home. Poor little baby….
I’ll be praying for him, Esther. Poor little guy!
Poor little man! Prayers for you! Hoping that you will feel God’s love enveloping you and him – holding you and sustaining you.
Wanted to add: I wouldn’t worry about him having asthma. If he’s made it this far in life with no previous breathing issues, this is VERY likely just a one-time event as a result of a severe virus. Judah’s twin, Kyrie, has never had a moment’s trouble w/asthma until the virus we had last month. She got bronchitis (and 2 of her sisters had pneumonia) from that virus and they are all normally VERY healthy. Such was the nature of that particular virus. Maybe it’s what your little guy has…
Also, I think it’s actually quite common for young children, especially if they have a slighter build like Jason Jr., to need neb treatments on occasion when they are quite sick. Their airways are just small, so naturally they have less room to spare when their airways swell and/or are congested with mucus. This doesn’t mean they have asthma, or even asthmatic tendencies, and any breathing problems usually go away as their lungs mature and grow.
Now, if Jason Jr. has a consistent dry or “metallic-sounding” cough, especially worse at night, if he’s had minor breathing troubles in the past, or if anyone in your family/relatives has asthma, yes, asthma may be a concern. But my bet is he’s just been hit hard by a nasty germ, and he’ll be back to his little 2-year-old self in no time! (Sorry for being so long. Can you tell we have a dr. who likes to explain things in detail to us?!)
Praying for him!
I’m sorry to hear that your little guy isn’t feeling well. I’ll keep you and your family in my thoughts and prayers.
I’m sorry to hear your little one is sick! We are having this also and it started a few months ago – it comes and goes. Sunday my little one got sick again but this time the fevers got high. On Monday they hit 105 and we had to take him in to the ER. They sent him home and said fever control.
Tuesday he went to his doctor and we got told fever control but call tomorrow because I wanna monitor his caught, lungs sound clear. Today the doctor finally said go for an xray and come to find out he has viral pneumonia.
I hope he gets better quickly! God works his magic.
We never knew we could love so much until we had kids. Will be praying for your little tyke!
Yes, a lot of Etheridges have asthma and such. Sunny and David both did and Uncle Grady. As you know,Amy and Margie have or have had related things. On the other hand, Adam got real sick with something just like that once when he was a baby and it seems to have been a one time thing.
My little boys have had similar breathing issues this past month and are finally doing better. They hated the nebulizer! I will keep your sweet boy in my prayers. Janae
Awww…..I hope your little man is feeling better soon! I’ll be praying! My youngest has a reactive airway. We have a nebulizer because (nearly) anytime she gets sick, she gets wheezy. She doesn’t have asthma though, they call it “Reactive Airway Disease” or RAD. We do the breathing treatments pro-actively now….first sign of a sniffle, the machine comes out! 🙂
My little one actually LOVES “Nebby”, and starts smiling and giggling when she see’s it!
Awwww! Sorry to read that your little boy is so sick. That is scary. My youngest used to get croup and was even hospitalized one time. Yeah, it may be fairly normal, but no parent wants to go through it, or watch their child suffer through it! So, I feel your pain! We’ve done the pneumonia/bronchitis thing too. Ugh! He is 7 now and still gets a croupy cough, but hasn’t needed any intervention for it in several years. Phew! We do have an at-home nebulizer, though, if needed.
Hope your son is feeling better today! Will pray for him!
I’m praying for your son. I hope he’s feeling better.
Poor little thing!! Hope he gets 100% better very soon!
As for that nurse… OH MY!!! xDDDD