A New Week!

I'm so happy its a new week. Last week was a good weeks since we all three were together for most the week since we were out of town but a hectic, sad, and sicko week.

We headed to Duke (see previous post) and that was overall a good trip. Caleb got a good report, Nick and Caleb had a blast swimming in the hotel pool and we got to go to dinner and meet another family that participated in the study more recently that I have shared several e-mails with over the last couple of months.

The hectic part started with Caleb getting a "almost" ear ache before we left, He was up every 20 min Friday night, the immediate care doc prescribed antibiotic for just in case. He said he didn't have an ear ache yet, just some fluid in one ear but if he got cranky, fever etc.. while gone to start them. Well, the just in case dose was too low of a dose. By Wed, late afternoon when we got home we were heading straight to our Ped b/c Caleb couldn't stop coughing, he had a dbl ear ache! We switched antibiotics.

Mon - after the pool that Caleb and Nick had so much fun in, Caleb had a asthma attack, It was one of the few, if not the only time that Nick and I think he had a true "he needs his rescue breathing meds now!" attack vs. he needs them soon". I think it was just the extremely extremely over chemicalized hotel pool that cleared your sinuses the second you walked in that irritated his lungs enough to give him an attack.

Tues - we had a good day at the hospital and got to go to dinner, but Caleb was worse than he has ever been in his life at dinner!! Nick and I couldn't believe it. He was still in a good mood after dinner but man o man dinner was not one of Caleb's best moments. He's usually a handful, don't get me wrong, but we don't usually having crying fits and he's usually distractable. He was much much better after dinner when we all walked around the adjoining mall and he got to be 100% himself and run like crazy!

Wed - Caleb was in a great mood, and actually he gets an A++++ for that day b/c we had a 3.5 hour delay and he stayed calm the entire time. But this is the day that he just started coughing, while we were in the airport. The poor nurse at his Peds office got more than one call from me asking if I could change meds, do meds more frequently and by the time we landed, both the nurse and the doc were staying well past 5 just to squeeze us in for the day! (They are the best! they didn't want me to have to go to the ER and Caleb couldn't stop coughing so we got there at 4:45 and they treated him! We didn't even leave until after 5:30.)

Thurs - Caleb was on the mend, and seemed to be doing better, I had a good U/S were our baby girl was measuring right on track and I ended up letting Caleb go to playgroup b/c he was doing so much better, and he had tons of fun.

Fri - Caleb was doing even better in the AM, we were supposed to head out to Jasper for Nick's grandmas funeral and it was ify on if Caleb and I could go originally but by this time he was right at his 1 cough per 1/2 hour rule we got, he was looking great, and just had the best speech therapy session he'd had in a long time so we fed him lunch and headed out.

Well -- about 1.5 hours into the car ride, Caleb couldn't stop coughing, we got there and he was happy happy but the cough just wasn't good. He woke up Fri night in distress with a super scary barking cough, it literally sounded like a colony of seals and he couldn't even get a word out to say mama. I walked in to check on him b/c his coughing fit wouldn't stop and he was clutching the sheet trying to talk and couldn't stop coughing to yell for us. Luckily, Caleb has wonderful pulmologist, there are two of them in the practice, and you can always reach one of them. Since they both know Caleb I didn't care who was on call, just wanted to talk to one. I talked to his docs partner who told me to get a steroid in him immediately, she called it in, and I went to wait, he had another episode while I was gone that freaked Nick out. We gave him the steroid and it took away the bark, but the hope was that it would make him better fast, and he still needed his treatments every 3 to 4 hours and couldn't break the cough.

Sat AM Nick decided he should skip the funeral, and we needed to get Caleb home. This was a pretty hard and sad decision for him, especially since he was pretty close to his grandma growing up but he's a great Daddy and made Caleb his #1 priority/concern so we headed back. the car ride wasn't easy on Caleb. We got approval from the pulmologist to do breathing meds every 3 hrs but... he wouldn't respond or more accurately the cough wouldn't respond his resp rate was fine, oxygen was fine, he was just coughing and working hard to breath. We got home, and he did better but still not great so we opted to take him in to get him looked at. It was a good trip b/c a doc looked at him but I really really hate ERs so I wasn't happy we went, Nick is happier, he thinks the stress relief of having a doc look at him was good. There wasn't much more they could do for him there, the poor kid is maxed out on meds, so they sent us on our way with and told us to continue all meds and hopefully they kick in soon (so nothing changed, hense I wasn't happy with our decision to go, but at the time we both thought we needed to go). Nick's feeling is they confirmed the new antibiotic was working (ears don't look great, but better), told us they felt he had a cold on top of the asthma & ear ache, hence the cough wouldn't stop/respond to the meds for the asthma and ear ache so they gave us reasons for why the meds that were supposed to work w/i 12 to 24 hours were taking longer, hence a good trip b/c it relieved stress.


Finally! today the steroids are kicking in, the antibiotic must be working better b/c his cough in 1000 X better. Its still there but not call the doctor go to the ER bad. He didn't have the best night, but he did sleep. He made it about 6 hours b/f we woke up the first time. He was super cute. He needed a big hug and cuddle from mommy then he told daddy it was time for "breathing" (Nick does the neb meds as I can't when I preggers). He needed Nick to sleep in there with him the back half of the night, so I watched them on the monitor. it was super cute. Caleb would wake up look around and cuddle into Nick when he didn't feel well. Nick meanwhile, slept through it all, making a somewhat sleepless back half of a night for the paranoid mom (me)who does not condone sleeping in the bed with a toddler, I know its ridiculous but I've heard to many horror stories of parents rolling on babies so I watched the video monitor most the night.

Caleb is now taking a Nap and hasn't coughed once in the last 40+ min so he is doing GREAT! This means Nick and I are going to drop him off with grandma and grandpa when he wakes up and get to go to a quick movie for Valentines day. So happy its a new week and my baby boy is better!! and Nick and I actually get to go out for Valentines day, we thought this was going to be put on hold yesterday.