FRUSTRATED and SCARED

I would think any parent out there can relate to this topic.... illness of your child. As I said in my previous blog, Austin ended up getting ill on our Disney Cruise over Christmas. What has unfolded this week is like a song you've heard 1,000 times. "It's viral, his ears, throat, chest sounds fine BUT if he's not better in the next 3 days please bring him back". So I walk out of the doctors office Monday thinking that he just needs time to recover, and praying that my mom can come down to watch him so I can go back to work on Wednesday. Mom comes down and little by little the fever starts subsiding, he's showing a little bit of interest in his Christmas presents, but isn't exactly 100 %. Still somewhat lethargic, and still has that deep cough.

Anyways, by Thursday my mom and I both think that he possibly could handle school on Friday BUT I wanted to have him checked by our regular pediatrician just to make sure. Oh, forgot to say that on Monday it wasn't our regular doctor but someone else ( I think that's an important piece here ). Well, my mom meets me at the doctors and then hits the road back home ( her and my dad are trying to get ready to go to Florida for a few months ). Meanwhile, Austin gets called back and me and Collin follow behind. Typical greetings with the friendly nurses, no temperature, so I start to think that this will be fine. Just give me the green light and I know my boy is healthy again. WRONG!!!!!! My son's doctor comes in and starts to listen to him breathe ( chest and back ) and then turns to me and states, "Things have taken a dramatic change". Austin has never had wheezing before, and then I was asked if asthma runs in either side of our family.... which it doesn't. Anyways, he decides to give him a breathing treatment and then re-evaluate him...... still no change! He gives him another breathing treatment (stronger dose ) and very little improvement. Next I hear, "To avoid the E.R. and Hospital, he's going to be on some medications". Well all I heard was E.R. and Hospital. I was doing my best to hold my composure but I was about to freak out and the doctor realized this. He told me to take a deep breath ( funny because that's what my son can't do ..ha! ) and explained everything to me. He had scripts for : 60 mg. of prednisone daily, z-pack, inhaler, and my very own nebulizer for home ( with adult strength xopenex ). He adds at the end that he wants to see Austin back either Tuesday or Wednesday to see if these measures have helped and if not we'll go from there! Go from there? That's what I said, and he told me that we would not discuss that now but on Tuesday IF things were not any better.

What amazes me is that a week prior is when I thought he was at his worst ( high fevers, puking, diarrhea, sleeping non-stop ). I'm wondering if the doctor on Monday dropped the ball and didn't pick up on something or maybe he just progressively went downhill on the inside. Believe me, on the outside you would think that he was slowly getting a little better every day. Apparently not! Now today he has had some mood swings ( prednisone ) and has experienced an accelerated heart rate ( combination of the prednisone and xopenex ). Hopefully these medications will avoid a hospital stay but all I want is for my son to get better. So if that means being admitted for IV antibiotics..... then bring it on. It has been exactly 2 weeks today that all this mess started with the coughing and then everything else. What I keep wondering is if the doctor on Monday missed some crackling in his chest, and now it has progressed so far into pneumonia. I will never know, but I will make sure from now on that my boys see their regular doctor who knows them very well.