Sick Again

Last weekend Elias had another cold. Unfortunately, our wonder medicine didn't work so well this time. He was pretty wheezy and super duper crabby. This is not a good combination. On Sunday afternoon he started complaining that his ear hurt. Great. Now we have to decide to either wait and get in with the doctor on Monday or go to an after hours clinic. Well, I had jury duty on Monday, so we decided to take him in on Sunday afternoon.

Normally, I suppose, this isn't a big deal. The last time we took Elias to one of these places though, we were there for hours because his oxygen level was too low. We went in for an ear infection, but had to stay for forever because of his breathing. This time we dreaded the same. Luckily we got a doctor with some experience in the matter. He admitted that they were most concerned about Elias' breathing (that the ear infection was really secondary), but he promised we wouldn't be there for hours upon hours. He pumped Elias full of medicines (tylenol for a slight fever, a steroid to help with breathing, and a double dose of nebulizer treatment, back-to-back). Once that was done, the reading of his oxygen level dropped. What?? We were worried about a repeat from last time, but luckily the doctor knew his stuff. He said that sometimes it takes the body a while to process the new oxygen that it is getting, so there is a slight drop. Not to worry. Elias looked much better and seemed to be having little to no wheezing. We went home, got more steroids to give him over the next 4 days for his breathing, more medicine for the nebulizer, and, oh yeah, some antibiotics for that ear infection. Ugh.

It was a hard few days for Elias. He was crabby, but we sent him to school anyway. He likes being at school better than at home, so we figured we might as well send him. We are paying for it either way. Each morning they said he was OK, but the afternoons were rough (one day he cried for an hour). He didn't feel like eating, and he just wasn't himself. He was waking up at night, sometimes 2 or 3 times. Double Ugh.

By this past weekend, he was pretty much back to his old self. I'm giving this medicine one more cold, and then it may be back to the specialist. Current score: New medicine = 2, Cold = 1.