Getting Nebulized -- our ER weekend

Late last week, Mr. Meh got sick with a cold. It was bound to happen. We made it just past 1 year mark without any, absolutely any sicknesses. We must have gloated about it too much and jinxed ourselves. Or maybe it was because Andy and I have had awful colds for the last month. He was bound to get it, especially once he stopped nursing last week (much to my dismay).

The runny nose and cough started last Thursday. We stayed home with him on Friday. (The weather was also awful, freezing rain so the fed government had optional leave policy in effect and UMCP opened late.) We tried sucking out the snot from his nose, but he wouldn't let us get anywhere near his nose with that little suction device.

On Saturday, Andy thought he heard him wheeze. Then I thought I heard him wheeze too. And while Andy was out buying a humidifier for his room to help with the cold, I called the doctor.

"Is the breathing on the inbreath, or outbreath?"
"I don't know. It's hard to tell."
"Well, if it's on the inbreath, then it's croup and there is nothing you can do about it. It will progressively get worse for three nights, before it gets better. Humidier is all you can do."
"OK"
"But if it's on the outbreath, then you need to go to the hospital. Is his breathing pace faster? Does he breath in a few quick breaths after coughing?"
"I don't think so," I said and half ignoring the outbreathing wheezing scenario, thinking that it's just a bout of croup.

Well, as soon as I got off the phone with the pediatrician, Ivan coughed and then breathed in a few quick breaths. It freaked me out. I listened to his breathing and this time it seemed the wheezing was on the outbreath. I was in denial. When Andy returned, he listened too and concluded it was on the outbreath. We called the pediatrician again. She said to go the hospital as he needs a breathing treatment.

So, on Saturday around 4 pm we packed Mr. Meh and took him to Holy Cross ER. He had a bit of a fever (101 or so). They checked him out. He seemed fine except for the occasional wheezing. There are two treatments for wheezing: using the nebulizer or putting him a pump or two of asthma-like pump medicine (I forget the name). They decided again the nebulizer because Mr. Meh would have to have a mask on his face for some 10-15 min while he enhaled all of the medicine. They went the option 2. I thought this was equally bad. We had to put this mask, which covered his nose and mouth, over his face and then press the pump twice so he'd get two shots of the medicine. Sounds easy. Except that Mr. Meh was screaming his lungs out and wouldn't let anyone come near him. The whole weekend, he had been really protective of himself and wouldn't let us touch him -- from trying to suction out his nose, to changing his diaper, etc....

Mr. Meh screamed and trashed around for some 10min-1/2 hour while the two of us and the nurse tried to put the mask on his face and get two pump squirts in. The nurse said it's actually better than he's crying because he'd inhale more of the medicine.

Then we left, with instructions to go and see the doctor on Sunday morning.

While we were at the hospital trying to change his diaper, I also noticed that behind one knee he had some sort of dried skin/rash spot. I had never noticed that before.

By the time we came home from the hospital, Mr. Meh, who was exhausted and for whom it was almost past his bedtime, was asleep in the car. We just carried him to his room, and put him to bed with a bottle of milk. He wasn't eating much on Friday or Saturday, probably because he's sick, so we figured it's better to let him sleep and drink milk than force him to eat.

On Sunday morning, he was still wheezing intermittenly -- the same way he wheezed on Saturday. We went to the doctor's. She didn't check for his cold or check his temperature, but honed in on the wheezing, which was why we were there. She gave him the nebulizer treatment -- she said the advantage of it is that the child needs to inhale whereas with the treatment we got at the hospital, the child can just hold in his breath and not breathe in the medicine.

Well, Mr. Meh was freaking out. He was crying inconsolably. He wouldn't let her touch him with the sthetoscope, etc....just like at the hospital the evening before. I think it's because he probably remembered that we were at the doctor's at a week earlier, when he got his shots that really hurt.

When the nurse came in with the nebulizer machine, he was screaming and trashing around. It was really awful. Finally the nurse gave up and left, leaving us to calm him down and get the mask on his face so we can use the nebulizer. It was awful. Andy was holding him and I was trying to put the mask (which was just a piece of clear plastic) over his mouth and nose. After some 1/2 hour of resisting us, he just slumped in Andy's lap and inhaled the medicine. It was as if he gave up on us. We felt awful -- he was probably thinking that we, the two people he trusts the most, were trying to hurt him.

After the nebulizer while we were waiting for the doctor, he was so exhausted, he just fell asleeep in my lap. In an odd way, that scene made me feel like a real mom -- my exhausted, sick child napping in my lap and me patting his head, hugging him and loving him.

Andy wasn't thrilled about the Ivan getting this medicine (a bronchiodialator -- elbutrin or something). It's asthma medicine, for which he says it's like getting a huge shot of coffee. I wouldn't know. But aparently that's what needs to be done to help babies breathe.

The pediatrician lent us the nebulizer machine and said that we should give him the treatment every 4-6 hours if he's wheezing. If he goes for 8 hours without wheezing that he's fine.

We thought that he sounded better on Sunday. He still had a fever (101) in the evening, but that's normal for fighting a cold. He slept fine -- i.e. like he normally does. (Woke up around 10 to get milk and then slept until 6 am) On Monday I stayed home. I thought I heard him wheeze in the morning, but Andy didn't hear him, so we decided not to give him anything. He was fine for the rest of the day. He didn't eat very much and took more naps and was a bit more cranky, but overall he was the happy, active baby he is. On Tuesday morning, Andy thought he heard him wheeze but I didn't so we didn't give him anything again. We both went to work. My dad said Ivan was fine during the day -- that he slept more and ate less, but otherwise was fine.

So this morning, Andy took the nebulizer back to the doctor's since she was adamant to bring it back as soon as we no longer need it because it was their last one their loaned out..... He was supposed to make an appointement for Ivan to come back, as we both understood the doctor on Sunday that we should return the nebulizer once we no longer need it and that Ivan shoudl come back for a check up a few days after he stops wheezing. But Andy saw the doctor this morning, and said she wasn't pleasant, and that we were supposed to bring both the nebulizer and Ivan at the same time. If he's no longer wheezing, that there is no need for a check up.

So what's caused this? Is it serious? Does he have asthma? Did we overreact?

We don't know whether we overreacted -- we followed the doctor's advice. Did the amount of his wheezing (it never sounded as he was really struggling and we heard it intermittently) warrant the pain we caused him by forcing those masks on him?

Is this a beginning of asthma? The pediatrician said a child needs to be heard wheezing on three separate occasions by a physician to say that he has asthma. He probably has a predisposition toward asthma as Andy has a mild asthma and it turns out several of his nieces/nephews also were "nebulized" as babies.

What caused this? Who knows. Probably the cold virus triggered it. Andy's heartbroken because he thinks his smoking caused it (he smokes only in the garage, but the smoke still wafts through the house). Since the weekend he's stopped smoking at home, which I hope he keeps up. I want him to stop altogether. I got angry with Andy that now all of a sudden it dawned on him that second hand smoke may be bad, as if I haven' tbeen bitching about that on daily basis for the last three years.

I'm upset because as of last week, Ivan stopped nursing - he stopped wanting to nurse, not me. The fact that he no longer wants to nurse has been quite hard for me to take. But with this cold, I feel that he got sick in the first place because he stopped nursing and he no longer gets my extra immunity. I feel that he stopped nursing and is now falling apart.

His dried skin stop behind his knee is still there. I've been putting lotion on it, but it hasn't gone away yet. Is it eczema? It could be. Wheezing, asthma, allergies, eczema all go hand in hand. And Andy had some eczema as a baby.

Then we also noticed that the spot where he got his shot (I think it was the chicken pox shot) is inflamed and red. Getting such a reaction to the shot is normal, but since he hasn't had any side effects with any shots so for nor got sick before this episode, getting all these minor things at once, I feel like the baby is falling apart. (I know he's not, and I feel very lucky and grateful that we made it to one year before getting sick at all).

So if that is eczema and this was really wheezing, maybe he does have a predisposition toward asthma. While it's not a big deal and if he were to get it it's manageable, nobody wants their child to be sick and have ailments.

He still has a cold and his nose is runny, but he seems better. I can't recall whether this morning either one of us heard him wheeze. We did listen for it.

Is this an isolated episode or a beginning of something more frequent remains to be seen.