The Weekly Review: Week Nineteen

This week the Weekly Review will appear in a slightly different format.

List of Notable Events this Week (in order of occurrence)

• My wonderful parents took both children overnight from Saturday morning through Sunday afternoon. It was bliss.
• My husband and I celebrated by accomplishing one of the items on our "We will do this at some point in our lifetime" list. We adopted two kittens from the same litter and brought them home.
• Michael caught a cold.
• The kittens spent four hours lost in my own house. It turns out they were stuck behind the washer and dryer.
• Michael's cold turned croupy.
• (Warning: Slight icky factor ahead.) One of the kittens developed bloody diarreah. Mental note to call vet and shelter in the morning. Decide to quarantine kittens until further notice.
• Michael woke up much worse. Called pediatrician. Spent 4 hours at hospital with two young children to confirm original diagnosis of croup. Went home with no new information and no new treatment plan. (Instead of dealing with sick kitten.)
• Noticed that kitten's problem is intermittent, but still present. Called shelter and vet to begin working on the issue. Waiting for vet appointment later today.

Minor (I hope) Health Crisis - Update

We arrived for our appointment 10 minutes early. We were seen relatively quickly, probably no more than 10-15 minutes past our appointment time. Michael's temperature was normal and his oxygen levels were fine. Of course, his temp was down because I gave him acetaminophen this morning and it hadn't worn off yet.

Our pediatrician came in and agreed that Michael sounded croupy but was obviously bothered by the fact that he got a fever first and the croup second. Apparently that's not the usual order of operations. So she did order that chest x-ray. She also added in an upper airway x-ray too. She didn't tell me this at the time, but she was worried he had some kind of abscess in his upper airway.

Now, our pediatrician's office is in a building attached to a hospital so we just went down an elevator and traveled a long corridor to radiology. We sat in a waiting room and waited our turn to give them our order papers and then sat back down to wait for the x-rays. The children were so good. First we used the coloring books and markers. Then we used the paper and stickers. Then we used the popsicle sticks and fuzzy yarn to make (Hmm, can't think of what they're called...little diamond shaped things...very pretty....off on an internet search to find name...really? That's what they're called?) God's Eyes. Then I pulled out a book and we did nursery rhymes and songs. Now the natives were really restless so my husband pulled out the iPad and let them watch a little television.

I wasn't really paying attention to the time because I was so focused on keeping the children entertained, but my husband tells me an hour and a half passed by. Then someone came in and said, "There you are, you're supposed to be in the other waiting room. We've been looking for you guys." Seriously!!!!! Turns out the other waiting room was a 5 second walk down the hall. They couldn't have checked the front waiting room a little sooner?

So, we go down to the other waiting room and wait some more. Finally it is Michael's turn. He was a trooper. By now it was past his usual nap time. He's sick and hungry and his fever had returned so his patience and bravery were a little low. He got through the first two (front and side of chest) like a champion following all the directions and in a fairly good mood, but by the time they did the second two (back? and side of the neck) his patience was a little low for the constant directions to lift his chin just a little more. We got through though. Then we had to wait to make sure they all came out well. Ten minutes later we needed to go back for another chest x-ray.

Finally we headed back up to the pediatrician's office where we waited 15-20 more minutes to see our pediatrician again. They told us that they had to call down to radiology to ask about us and that was the only reason they came looking for us. Wow.

So, after all of this..... The x-rays showed he has croup. Which we already knew. It only took 4 hours at the hospital with two children under the age of four to confirm. Sigh.

The children were so exhausted. By the time we got home it was two hours past their usual nap time. They did well though. I'm proud of them. And I'm thankful that my husband left work and came to help with Ava while I focused on Michael. And I suppose I am also grateful that it is nothing worse.

End of story.

Minor (I hope) Health Crisis

The fact that I've used the word crisis twice in post titles tells you what kind of week I'm having.

So, Sunday night it became apparent that Michael had a fever. I figured it was your typical summer cold and it behaved that way. Monday morning he had a cough and still the fever, but no runny nose or anything. His behavior was pretty normal.

Michael often gets the croup when he has a cold, and as I was getting him ready for bed Monday night I made him laugh and I could hear the stridor when he inhaled. We know the drill. We got out two humidifiers and closed all the downstairs A/C vents to redirect as much cool air upstairs (and therefore into his bedroom) as possible. We could hear the barking cough all night long, but no crisis. Tuesday morning the fever broke and he seemed on the mend. We put him to bed last night with the humidifiers just because they were already out, and why not be careful?

So, this morning the fever is back. He had full on stridor for an hour after he woke up and that has never happened before. His nose is running constantly. He's lethargic and extremely overly-sensitive. Any time he gets upset the stridor comes back.

I called his pediatrician to ask how concerned I should be about this. She is fitting him in on her lunch hour and is pretty sure she's going to be sending him for a chest x-ray.

I have a bag packed full of snacks and activities for a 2 and 3 year old. I have their clothes laid out. I'm feeding them a snack of apples and carrots/dip. I'll dress them right before we go. Everything is ready, now just to wait until the appointment time rolls around.