Sunday, September 14, 2008

Sick

It started out like this. A little guy with a cold and a cough. I should have known something was wrong because even when he is not feeling well he does not sit still. I actually thought it was cute and took a picture. I thought is was just another cold.
It ended up like this. A little guy in the hospital because he could not breath.
So all day Thursday Austin was not feeling well. He was really clingy and had a bad cough and was weasing. Around 4pm I called my Mom and put Austin on the phone to see what she thought of his wease. She said it did not sound good. I ignored her because, it was just a cold. Then at bed time I decided to call the "advice nurse". Her advice, "go to the emergency room immediately". So I found someone to watch Ben (luckily 95% of Brian's family live within 3 minutes of us) and called Brian who was still working at a client's office in SF and went to the ER. On the drive to the hospital I thought to myself.....Am I overreacting? When we arrived they quickly put us in a room and a DR came. Wow, I thought, this is the first time I have not had to wait......that should have been a clue. Well After hours in the ER, breathing treatments, steroids and x-rays. It was determined he has Restricted Airway Disease. WHAT IS THAT???? Well, it's exactly like asthma but it is not chronic......YET. He did have a cold that turned into bronchitis. And that caused his lungs go on lock down. They said this could happen every time he gets a cold or never again.

His oxygen levels were still too low so we got to stay the night. The Dr. thought we could go home in the morning......after a few minor setbacks we got to leave at 5pm the next day. Austin HATED it. He was so sick of people touching, pulling and holding him down that he would scream when a nurse or DR came near him. We are all home now doing breathing treatments every 4 hours around the clock (I feel like I have a newborn again). With DRs appointment's every other day. I am hoping to get more answers about what this really is on Monday. Is this Asthma and they are just hesitant to call it that? Why?

2 comments:

Suzann said...

Hi Corrinne,
This is Suzann, Brian's cousin Todd's wife. Brian sent us a link to your blog a while back, and I love to read your blog.

Anyway, we have had similar problems with our children. They get "asthma" with colds and with our oldest when she has bad allergies. Our youngest was the worst, and ended up in the hospital at 4 months old with his first cold. So I know what you are going through with all the breathing treatments, etc. It is very scary and stressful. I take my kids to a pulmonologist, and it has really made a world of difference. It has been so much more informative than the pediatrician. Even though my kids have an asthma diagnosis, they are perfectly fine unless they have a cold (or like I said allergies.) I start them on a preventative (not to be confused with a rescue medicine) inhaler at the first sign of a cold. Then, most of the time they do really well. It has helped a lot. They say that if you prevent the inflamation while they are young, that they have a chance of outgrowing it because the lungs will not scar. Anyway, sorry this is long. Good luck with everything.

Natalie said...

Wow, Corinne! Let us know what the dr says today. I hope he is feeling better, though I'm sure he's just glad to get out of that hospital!