How we spent our President's Day!!

Saturday night Cooper woke up with a fever, not too big of a deal. I gave him some Tylenol and he went back to sleep. The next morning he woke up with a cough and it was one of those dry barky sounding coughs but it wasn't all the time. He has a major gag reflex so every time I gave him medicine he would cough and gag it up. I was never really able to get his fever down, so after staying up with him all night on Sunday I decided that I would take him into the urgent care seeing how it was a Holiday.

It didn't open until 7am so as soon as it opened we headed in. I was filling out the paperwork and Cooper started coughing. One of the doctors heard him and asked me if it was him coughing. He then had me take off his coat and lift his shirt so he could see his chest. He told the nurse to get us back ASAP. We immediately got taken back and then the whirlwind began.

They got him on a breathing treatment and then they drew blood, put in an IV, gave him a steroid shot in his leg, added some antibiotics to his IV, took 6 X-rays of his throat and chest, and tested him for RSV. The chest X-rays came out fine, the throat x-rays showed that his throat was swollen. His breathing was getting better they had him on what they called blow by oxygen which basically meant it was near his mouth and nose but not actually on it.

The doctor said that Cooper needed to be observed for 4 hours because sometimes the breathing treatment works but when it wears off that the kid can relapse and it will be even worse. So they wanted us to go to this lovely place to be observed.

Aurora Children's Hospital.

But the hospital was 30 minutes away so the doctor arranged this for our mode of transportation.

So Cooper and I were in the back of the Ambulance headed to the Hospital by 8:30am. I know what you are thinking, this must have been so serious. That is what I was thinking, I was freaking out what is really going on is this normal precautions here in Colorado or what. I was pretty sure Cooper had Croup and I was merely taking him in to get the Steroid shot to open up his lungs and bring the swelling down. That is what they do in Utah.

So Cooper and I get to the hospital after talking to the nice EMT/Firefighter on the way there. Cooper was doing a whole lot better on the way he was looking around and answering me where as when we were at the urgent care he was being pulled to and fro so fast neither of us knew which way was up.

They admit us into a room, hook up a tube with Oxygen and saline to put near his mouth and nose, get his little monitor on him for his Oxygen level and then we wait. We talked to three different doctors they eventually turn off the oxygen because he is doing fine, We watched Toy Story 3 and Finding Nemo, Cooper is laughing and playing. Finally at 1:00pm I call the nurse to see if they can come check on us because it has been past 4 hours and he was fine.

They came and discharged us, the crappy thing was since we were so lucky to have gotten a ride in the ambulance I had no car and I still had the keys to my car with me so Tank had to come out and pick us up. So Needless to say we left the house at 6:45am and got back at 4:00pm. Cooper is doing great. I am pretty sure the urgent care was just covering all their bases and all of that was not necessary at all. I am grateful that it was done because if it had been worse we would have needed all that and I really do think Cooper would have been just fine with the Steroid shot but I think with the IV and antibiotic he is doing better much faster.

But all in all it was a very long day for him just having Croup.