Emergency Room Visit #2

Ok, so we are on a roll now!! (although I hope we are done!) Starting Tuesday evening Joshua coughed only once or twice, I thought to myself...great, he's getting his first real cold in over a year. After school on Wednesday Joshua told me that he was coughing alot during the day. So, everything seemed fine as we were getting ready for bed. I noticed that his cough was very tight and dry, so we pushed fluids and gave him a dose of cough medicine (hoping to help him sleep through the night with little coughing). At 12:45 Jerry and I collided in the doorway as we were racing into Joshua's room, something just didn't sound right with his cough. It was like he couldn't catch his breath. It only took us seconds to decide that we needed to go in right away. We arrived at the ER by 1:20a.m. Luckily they were not busy, so we were seen right away. He was given Motrin for his fever and then we waited for the Respiratory Therapist to come and give him a breathing treatment. He was diagnosed with bronchiolitis (which flared up his asthma). We finally left the ER and filled his prescription, making it home a little after 4 a.m. Although he is still having problems with the cough, it is much better than it was before the ER. We will be seeing his asthma specialist first thing Friday morning.

He has testing done every 6 months, and so far they have kept him on a chewable pill (Singulair) for managing his asthma. This is the first time in over a year and a half that he has been sick with something other than a cold. At our last appointment with Dr. Voica, we decided to keep managing as we were and not move up to an inhaler. I have a feeling that will change on Friday. There is also the possibility that we will have the machine to give him breathing treatments here at home. He is very open to the idea. He says the scariest part of last night was not being able to breath. I can definitely agree with that...nothing like seeing your child in repiratory distress. It reminded me of when he was an infant and had the same kind of attacks.

He is up and playing quietly now. He stays close to his humidifier...he says it helps him feel better.