er visit #2.....

Cannon's vomiting has mostly just been limited to after he eats solid food now. Because of this he has pretty much been refusing to eat anything besides milk. He was pretty "off" yesterday, not much energy at all and he slept a lot. I put him to bed early and then at about 11:30 we heard this terrible cough. It was odd because he hadn't had a cough at all before then. I went to check on him and his face was bright red and he couldn't stop coughing. He then started to have a hard time breathing. After all that has been through lately, I did not even hesitate to just pack up his bag and head to the ER. Eric stayed home with Charlie. His cough got a little better on the way but he was still very uncomfortable and seemed to be in a lot of pain. We got right in to see a nurse and she said it sounded like croup. We got set up in a room and gave him a nebulizer breathing treatment as we waited for the doctor. An hour later the doctor came in and she was pretty sure it was croup as well because his lungs seemed clear and she could tell that his throat was quite swollen. I didn't know much about croup, but I guess it is an upper repiratory viral infection that has a distinct "barking-seal" cough. She wanted to get a chest x-ray to be sure it was not pneumonia. The chest x-ray did not show pneumonia, but that he had RSV along with the croup. My heart sank when she told me this because they used to talk a lot about RSV in the NICU and how life threatening it is for little babies. He was getting those monthly $1500 shots to help prevent RSV last winter. She told me that it should not be too serious for Cannon since he is bigger now and did not have any major lung problems. She said it will be just like a very,very bad cold that will last for 10-14 DAYS! That combined with the sore, swollen throat and occasional vomiting, sounds like it is going to be a fun couple of weeks. They gave him some steroids to help reduce the swelling in his throat. We are supposed to give him another dose of steroids tonight. He had to stick around for a while to be sure that the steroids kicked in and that he did not get any worse. The doctor was happy with his condition after about a half hour and we were able to go home. We all got back in to bed about 3am and he slept pretty good until 8. The only thing we can give him is tylenol to maybe help with the pain, but otherwise this is just something we are going to have to wait out.

I am tired and frustrated, but mostly I am just sad. Sad that he is not getting better. Sad that he won't eat. Sad to see him so sad. Sad that I feel like something is wrong, but yet we really do not have any answers. Please pray for us. Pray that he will have a quick recovery and that we can have our little dude back.