Christmas Cooties
I think my daughter has inherited my immune system. Well, the immune system I had when I was little. This Sunday she had a fever of 102 or so. This was the THIRD weekend in a row that something was wrong. The first was a cold. The second, ear infection...now this. Daddy wanted to rush her to the hospital, but I managed to talk him into calling the pediatritian on call instead. They said she could be dehydrated and if the fever didn't break by morning to bring her in. The next morning temp was 99.5, so we figured she was good, so off to school she went.
She had a good day, but when we got home Daddy checked and the fever was back...102.3. He tried Motrin first but the temp was higher than he was comfortable with* so we went to the ER. They checked her out (catheter to draw urine, a throat swab to check for strep and a chest x-ray that traumatized the crap out of her) and found nothing. They said it was probably a virus and to keep an eye on her. So, we went home. This was about 9pm
Flash forward to 12:45am. Brie wakes up SCREAMING and unresponsive. She was talking out of her head (something about throwing trash away) and we assumed she was waking up from a nightmare so we tried to calm her down. There was NO calming her down and she kicked and screamed to get away from me as if she'd (1) never seen me before and (b) I was coming at her with a meat cleaver. So, 911 was promptly called.
Of course by the time they got there, which was only 5 minutes or less, she was calm and said "Daddy, FIRE TRUCK!" when they pulled up. They came in and found good vitals and no fever, so they told us we could take her to the doc to have her checked out. Then, she coughed...
It was the weirdest cough I'd ever heard. She sounded like a baby seal. Both paramedics looked at each other and immediately said "Croup". I'd heard of it, but didn't really know what it was. Sounded like something they caught in the 1800's, like Consumption.
We took Brie back to the ER. There hadn't been a shift change yet, so they all remembered us. Turns out Croup is a virus that cause inflammation of the larynx...hence the seal-like bark. The only treatment is steroids and humidified air. If she has a coughing fit in the middle of the night it's actually good to take her out into the cold night air (bundled up, of course) so she can breathe it in. It helps with the inflammation. Turns out the docs were right on the first visit, it's just the Croup hadn't manifested itself yet.
Needless to say we got NO sleep. Brie was up until about 5am and I got maybe 2.5-3 hours worth. I was in no condition to go to work, plus I was worried about Brie and Daddy needed some much needed sleep...which he's getting now.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
She had a good day, but when we got home Daddy checked and the fever was back...102.3. He tried Motrin first but the temp was higher than he was comfortable with* so we went to the ER. They checked her out (catheter to draw urine, a throat swab to check for strep and a chest x-ray that traumatized the crap out of her) and found nothing. They said it was probably a virus and to keep an eye on her. So, we went home. This was about 9pm
Flash forward to 12:45am. Brie wakes up SCREAMING and unresponsive. She was talking out of her head (something about throwing trash away) and we assumed she was waking up from a nightmare so we tried to calm her down. There was NO calming her down and she kicked and screamed to get away from me as if she'd (1) never seen me before and (b) I was coming at her with a meat cleaver. So, 911 was promptly called.
Of course by the time they got there, which was only 5 minutes or less, she was calm and said "Daddy, FIRE TRUCK!" when they pulled up. They came in and found good vitals and no fever, so they told us we could take her to the doc to have her checked out. Then, she coughed...
It was the weirdest cough I'd ever heard. She sounded like a baby seal. Both paramedics looked at each other and immediately said "Croup". I'd heard of it, but didn't really know what it was. Sounded like something they caught in the 1800's, like Consumption.
We took Brie back to the ER. There hadn't been a shift change yet, so they all remembered us. Turns out Croup is a virus that cause inflammation of the larynx...hence the seal-like bark. The only treatment is steroids and humidified air. If she has a coughing fit in the middle of the night it's actually good to take her out into the cold night air (bundled up, of course) so she can breathe it in. It helps with the inflammation. Turns out the docs were right on the first visit, it's just the Croup hadn't manifested itself yet.
Needless to say we got NO sleep. Brie was up until about 5am and I got maybe 2.5-3 hours worth. I was in no condition to go to work, plus I was worried about Brie and Daddy needed some much needed sleep...which he's getting now.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
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