Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Why I dislike days like today...

Today is one of those days that is mentally exhausting. Sadie had a great day at the county stock show Saturday. T.S., on the other hand, seems to have developed asthma and stock show dust seems to be the trigger. After a miserable day of coughing Saturday, he seemed a little better Sunday morning. By Sunday evening it was apparent he needed to go to the doctor. His breathing was pretty good and his color was good, but he was still coughing some.

Monday we headed to the doctor with the thought that he might have an infection or just needed cough medicine. The doctor thought differently. His lungs were not sounding good and his oxygen level was not good. You know it's bad when you start off seeing a nurse practitioner and end up seeing the doctor as well as both nurses. We were sent home with instructions for breathing treatments and to come back Tuesday to learn what things we could do as preventative measures.

So here we are today. The short trip to the doctor to get educated turned into another breathing treatment and coming back to the office a few hours later to assess where we were. His oxygen levels are still not where they should be, but his lungs sound better and his color is good. The doctor sent us home with instructions for breathing treatments every 2 hours and to check the oxygen levels and report in.

So, now we are to the exhausting part: keeping up with the treatment schedule, wondering if his oxygen is good or bad, wondering if we'd be better off in the hospital....
T.S. is hyped up on albuterol and steroids--a bad combination for a four-year old boy. He's bouncing everywhere and can't hold still.

Sometimes I think it'd be easier to go get a 9 to 5 job and hire a nanny.

2 comments:

Granny Sue said...

What a rotten day. And a rotten diagnosis.

I take Singulaire and it's like a miracle for my asthma/sllergy problems. I believe they now have a version for kids. Maybe something like that will help. Poor little kid, and poor mom too.

Laura said...

Granny Sue--thanks for the sympathy. We've turned the corner and are now down to 3 breathing treatments a day and have started a preventative inhaler. Thanks for the suggestion of medicine...we'll be asking lots of questions at our next checkup.