B's ER Adventure

We've been having some more adventures in parenting over the last two day.  Saturday started with the icky vomit all over the car rite of passage which necessitated turning around more than 1/2 way to Serenity's birthday party. That would be only our first new and unpleasant illness of the day.  As evening came, we noticed that B was breathing more rapidly and shallowly than normal.  After an assessment with Aunt Audra, we called the pediatrician's line and they sent us to the ER.  So, a very excited B and his Daddy headed off with the iPad (seriously, despite the breathing he seemed totally fine and pumped to go--- cue parent worries about being paranoid).

While at the ER, I'm told he was very helpful in describing his situation to the triage nurse and an exceptionally good little patient.  He sat for his pulse/blood oxygen tests patiently and bravely sat very still in the xray room by himself.  In between visits with nurses and techs he and Daddy talked to me on Gchat  and watched Dora the Explorer on the iPad.  The final result was a diagnosis of an ear infection, eczema (as always), and bronchitis.  They ruled out pneumonia with the chest x-ray and sent them home with an inhaler and two prescriptions (antibiotics and a steroid).  Somewhere along the way, they gave B oxygen using this cool dinosaur mask which he now takes everywhere and loves to wear. (Yes, I plan to get you a picture).

They returned home three hours later and B was totally pumped about his awesome ER adventure.  Brent was maybe less enthusiastic, but glad that it had gone relatively well as hours in an ER with a three year old is a daunting prospect. (And another parenting right of passage as we'd not previously taken either kid to the ER).

So, today, complete with everything the ER Dr. gave him, B arrived at his pediatricians office-- yes, this included wearing the totally unnecessary dinosaur oxygen mask and carrying the entire inhaler delivery system.  He is quite attached.  At the Doctor, we got another inhaler prescription and began to hear murmurings of possible asthma.  B was again a very helpful little patient and took all of this in stride.  The Dr. says his airways are irritated and spasming a bit which would explain some of the rapid breathing and all the coughing he has been doing.  The second inhaler will be part of our routine for at least a month and depending on how the other symptoms progress we'll go from there.

Interestingly, long ago when B was just a two month old with bad eczema and cradle cap a his DC pediatrician said to me that someday he might have allergies and/or asthma as the eczema is an early indicator of this.  We were very careful introducing foods and so far have been pretty lucky to not have much in the way of other issues.  I'm hoping this one will pass us by, but if not, I'm encouraged that our little guy is so good in all the Dr. settings as it will certainly help. Meanwhile, other than a cough and occasionally weird breathing he seems to be doing really well.  In the end, I'm glad we went to the ER even though I was quite torn about it at the time.  Here's hoping this is an isolated episode.