ER Visit

We had an eventful time this morning. Mason went to bed seemingly fine but woke up at 1:20 with a horrible cough. It was "the bark" cough and he couldn't stop. His breathing was extremely labored too. After about 20 minutes of nonstop coughing and difficulty breathing, I decided it was time to go to the ER. I told Kevin to stay home and let Anna sleep and for him to TRY to sleep too. When we made it to the ER Mason was already some better. I think the cool night air helped open him up. I debated on whether to take him in the ER but decided to go ahead with it since I could still hear him breathing deeper and louder than normal.

I told the triage nurse that he was much better than when we left the house. She listened to him and said he was still wheezing and recommended he see the doctor. The doctor diagnosed him with Croup. They took xrays, gave two breathing treatments and an RX for a steroid. We arrived at the ER at 2:00 am and left at 5:30 am. (Really not bad for an ER visit.) We ran through the drive thru of the 24 hr Walgreens and made it home a little after 6:00 am. Mason had finally fallen asleep around 5:00 am in the ER but woke up 30 minutes later as we were leaving. Then he slept on the way home. When we got home, we both crashed into bed!

He woke up a little before 10:30 this morning and seems pretty good. He's coughed a little but overall is good. I think the steroid has really kicked in because he's getting into everything (more than normal!).

When the respiratory therapist was giving him a breathing treatment the noise of the treatment just about put him to sleep. I was holding the mask and she asked if I had a camera. Well, of course I did, so she held the mask so I could take a picture. Mason was very cooperative with the breathing treatments. He would just lay back and take it easy. Here he is trying to stay awake by looking at the Elmo and Big Bird stickers the therapist gave him.