We Interupt your Regularly Scheduled Program....

....to bring you PNEUMONIA! Woo hoo!

(Ok, this is really long with no cute pictures. Don't feel obligated to read, I just wanted to get it down for our own sakes!)

Last Sunday morning, Colin woke up sounding awful. He had been fighting what we thought was a cold, so we were expecting wheezing, but he sounded too bad to keep at home. So, off the ER he and I went at 6:45 am. Dr looked him over, no fever, hearing no wheezing, but seeing obvious "work of breathing" she prescribed him oral steroids and told us to come back if it got worse. By 5:00 pm he was sounding REALLY bad, retracting, and starting to get warm. Back to the ER, Colin and I go. This time his fever earned him an x-ray and, low and behold, PNEUMONIA! Honestly, I wasn't surprised. This round of breathing trouble felt and sounded different that all of our asthma woes last winter.

This diagnosis earned us a room upstairs in the pediatric unit. We were at the local hospital, not the well known children's hospital in the city, mostly because I refuse to drive there and that place is slightly intimidating to me, in general. I did feel a little nervous at first about being admitted NOT at the children's hospital, but, in the end, I'm glad we were where we were. (And our own pediatrician told me later that she really likes and trusts the pediatric attendings at the local hospital). By the time we were settled in our own room, first dose of antibiotics given, and we settled n it was 10:00 (WAY past C's bedtime). It was just the beginning of a very long night for both of us. Poor C would wake up every time the nurse or respiratory therapist came in (at least every 90 minutes) and it just wasn't a good night for us.

Thankfully, Daddy came in the morning while Aunt Mercedes watched poor, neglected Bean. I went home, showered, played with G, and took a nap. Daddy took very good care of Colin and got him to take a decent nap. Uncle D came over after work to be in charge of G and put her to bed, while I went back to see Colin and Daddy.

When I got back to the hospital, Colin was in pretty sad shape. His fever had gone up (still only at 102) and he was working and working to breath, while still not really WHEEZING. The doctor ordered continuous nebulizer treatments for him (about 1 hours' worth of abluterol given together) along with some other meds put in his breathing treatments. Colin also slept with oxygen that night just so he wouldn't have to work so hard to breath. I was pretty reluctant to leave, but Daddy knew that I needed sleep, so he sent me home while he settled in with Colin. Michael is pretty well known for his ability to sleep pretty much anywhere and through anything....me, not so much.

Our sitter came the next morning to keep Gillian while I switched with Michael. Colin was obviously much better in that morning, but still taking breathing treatments every two hours and his oxygen would dip when he slept. Both of those items earning us another night at the hospital. We were pretty desperate for help with Gillian at this point, so we had to call in the Grandparents! We are very lucky that they only live two hours away and can come help when we need it!

So, GraGra came down that afternoon (Tuesday but this point) and took Gillian to the mall....where else? Daddy came back to the hospital, ate dinner with Colin and me, and volunteered to stay ANOTHER night. Ok, seriously, he's my hero. Although, he claims it was very selfish since I am non-functional when I don't sleep, so me sleeping at home was for everyone's benefit.

By this point, Colin was feeling pretty good. Still happy to sit on our laps and watch LOTS and LOTS of Sesame Street, but he was happy and talkative. He had discovered that our window looked out onto the parking garage (which he called bridges) and he liked to look out and count the levels. Also, below our window (on the 5th floor) there was a giant compressor (I think, you'd have to ask Michael for sure) that had a fan that turned on and off and blew steam past our window. Also a bit hit with C. So, at this point, we weren't really worried about him, just frustrated that he wasn't improving fast enough to be discharged!

Next morning (Wednesday), I went to the hospital very early because Michael, who is running very low on vacation time, needed to get to work! GraGra was in charge of Gillian (who was an emotional mess by this point since she missed her brother and kept getting abandoned by her parents every time she turned around) and, luckily, they made it to Social Butterflies (our Mommy and Me class), which G TOTALLY enjoyed! Michael came home, showered, and headed to work, and Papa Frank drove down to take the afternoon shift on the home front. I had the joy of spending the morning with my very, very overly tired and cranky son who finally felt good enough to CAUSE A RUCKUS at the hospital.

Luckily, our RN, who had seen us every day since we were admitted, recognized that C was feeling much better and gave me a glimmer of hope that we would be discharged on Wednesday! After breakfast, and after getting hit and screamed at by C who really didn't like being told NO at this point, we took a morning nap and then watched our 9000th hour of Elmo. Just about lunch time the doctor came by for rounds and told us we could GO HOME! Woo hoo!!! Sadly, in the universal way of hospitals, it still took us about two hours to be officially discharged! At that point, we raced home and I put Colin to BED. Immediately.

A week later, Colin is doing very well. He is still doing some breathing treatments during the day, but they aren't a big deal. He still seems to be a bit cranky and short-tempered, but I'm hoping a few more days of good sleep will help alleviate that. Although, I may have to admit that my sweet boy is having some issues being TWO. Gillian is returning to her normal self as well. Unfortunately, she had a very runny nose all last week and is trying to pop out four teeth right now, so she's still pretty clingy and weepy.

We are all very happy to home together. Our house was very, very quiet without our Colin-Monster chatting away all day long. And, Sissy and Bubba really did miss each other A LOT! (G keeps trying to hug and kiss C, although he will have NONE of it) I'm hoping this is our big winter hullabaloo and now we can settle down to the regularly scheduled asthma and colds for the rest of the winter.