Most certainly not for cookie...

So.  Late in the evening of my last post, Ethan woke coughing and gagging and pretty upset.  His chest and belly had him looking like he was sucking hard, trying to get air and H and I went - not into panic mode, but call it "crisis mode" of what do we do here?  We tried a hot and steamy bathroom, but nothing seemed to be keeping the situation from spiraling further.  Leaving H home with Daniel I bundled Ethan into the car and off we went to the ER.

Anyone who has dealt with croup will probably guess that the cold night air calmed things a bit, but I was still plenty worried and continued my journey.  Frustration set in almost immediately with my little local hospital as they trundled me through their admittance procedure - even though it was Ethan and I in a completely empty waiting room.  We were finally ushered back, and after Ethan was diagnosed we were started on blowby oxygen, rescemic epinephrine and steroids.  It was around 4:30am when he still wasn't responding well to the treatments that it was decided to transport us to Bigger Hospital via ambulance.  EMTs strapped a car seat to a gurney, Ethan to the car seat, and off we went.  It's still a vivid memory of my teeny kid looking wide-eyed around at this commotion all for him....  and his little voice saying "Cuck?" (Truck?) as he looked out at the ambulance.

They settled us as best we could be settled at Bigger Hospital.  Any way you go about it, though, it's hard on a 16 month old to be getting Xrays, monitors, IVs (3 pokes there), steroid shots...  and he absolutely hated the most common treatment of the epinephrine being blown in his face.  Each treatment he'd get temporarily better, then worse again.  None of us expected a case of croup to result in a 5-day hospitalization.  Most everyone helped us make the most of a bad and unexpected situation.  I thank God for those who looked after my little boy with such care.  And I learned to appreciate those who gave a little extra TLC to an exhausted Mama trying to look after her boy...  the kind nurse who ran to the cafeteria for me to make sure that I had something to eat, who made sure to ask if I needed anything at all.

After 5 days Ethan finally had a night of not needing any breathing "treatments" and we were allowed to go home.  We've all been dealing with congestion and cold symptoms but nothing like the problems that we were having that sent us to the hospital.  Here's to getting back on track for the start of a healthier winter.