A Sickly Month

As I write this, Ryan is rocking and comforting a very sick Christopher. These past weeks have been busy in our house. It began over 2 weeks ago when Christopher started with a croup cough at night. A couple doses of steriods had him right as rain (with a tad of 'roid rage). Then Lilly didn't want to be left out of the loop so she followed suit. Then Ryan, then finally me. In the midst of this Grandma had her scheduled surgery. The week leading up to and after said surgery were busy in itself. My Mom and I shared the workload of keeping Grandma healthy throughout the ordeal. So Friday I was in good spirits. Everyone in our house was healthy, Grandma was recovering well and things seemed to return to normal. Then it really hit us hard. Christopher got sick. I mean really really scary sick. We were down the 'dena; house sitting for my parents and keeping an eye on Grandma. Christopher developed a fever Friday night and by 2 pm Saturday he was croupy and making that scary wheezy/stridor sound when he breathed. So he and I headed to Patient First, where I learned how sick he really was. (I, for some reason, still had doubts that is was that bad). The verdict: strep, double ear infections and pneumonia! He cried so hard and was screaming "I want Lilly!" This sounds cute, but it made me so sad. I hadn't seen him this bad off before. As we waited in the pharmacy for his antibiotics and steroids to be filled, Christopher deteriorated before my eyes. He had panic attacks where he couldn't breath. He tried to talk ("I want Daddy!") but had no voice left. And his head was flushed and hot with fever. I gave him his medications asap and Ryan and I decided to leave for home, where we could manage better and keep germs away from Grandma. That night he became sicker still. He couldn't breath, couldn't talk, couldn't swallow. So off to the ER we went. Let me just tell you how happy I was with the care we received at St. Joe's Pediatrics After Hours. We were in and out in less than two hours. They gave Christopher a large dose of steroid, one shot in each leg. It turns out he was under dosed at Patient First. He began to improve almost immediately. The sweetest moment of it all came when I was putting him in the car to go home. He looked up into the sky and said "Mommy, I see the full moon and bright stars." I then realized it was the first time he had spoken in almost 8 hours. It was such an intimate and peaceful moment, just him and I staring at the stars together. We headed home and all slept straight through the night.