Valentine's Day and a Trip to the ER

We made our third trip in just 10 short months to the ER tonight.

To make a long story short, I took H to the doctor on Thursday for a nasty cough and congestion and as I suspected, it is his allergies. His pediatrician started him on Singulair. I thought he was feeling a little better so I went ahead and went to work on Friday since I missed all day Thursday and I've already had to take several days off from the job I just started two months ago. However, daycare called at 1 and he was running fever so I picked him up and brought him home. His ears that were fine on Thursday started draining and his eyes started running. He was absolutely miserable.

I thought I would brighten the day today (actually make that yesterday because it is 2:20 a.m.) by making pancakes for Garrett and Hayden for Valentine's Day. Hayden enjoyed them even though he wasn't in his normal cheerful state. I will have to post pics of his first Valentine's Day later. I could tell he didn't feel well, but he wasn't running fever so I went to work for a couple of hours to get a few things done while Garrett watched him. When I came home we all just hung around the house and slept. He has wanted to sleep a lot so I took a nap with him. When he woke up he felt really warm and after taking his temperature and discovering he had a fever I called the doctor on call. Then I realized he was wheezing and not looking well at all. We packed up and headed to the children's ER. I gave him his inhaler on the way after we had to pull over so Garrett could help me because he hates it.

They gave him a breathing treatment and some ointment for his eyes. He has allergic conjuctivitis in his eyes. It isn't contagious like pink eye so that's good news! He absolutely hates to have a breathing treatment and it wasn't any better this time. He screams and kicks and it is a horrible experience for all of us. They also used this vacuum thing to clean out his nose. Now that my friends is a nifty invention! Even though he didn't like that either, it was way better than a bulb syringe. He could finally breathe! The doctor ordered him his very own nebulizer because this wasn't the first and probably won't be the last time he will need a breathing treatment. We had to wait for home health to bring it and that took a while. We finally got home at about 1:30 a.m.

He doesn't have the flu or RSV. Basically, his allergies led to an asthma attack. He hasn't officially been diagnosed with asthma yet because they won't do that until after their first birthday, but more than likely that is what we're dealing with here. My brother has asthma and I have mild exercise induced asthma, but neither me or Garrett have allergies so this is a whole new experience for us. We have never had to deal with any of that. I feel for those of you who have allergies because I am seeing now how miserable it can be. I am hoping he will grow out of some, if not all, of the allergies and asthma.

He looks and feels much better now, but he is far from being well. He is a very sick baby. Sometimes I find myself asking why my baby has to be sick all the time, but if God didn't think I could handle it, then he wouldn't have given me these circumstances. I always keep in mind that it could be worse and at the end of the day, we're blessed. Simply blessed. And I continue to pray for those who have felt heartache like I've never known.