The CRAPPY croup

The last 4 days for us have been AWFUL! Sophie woke up Thursday night with the croup. It wasn't as horrible during the night as in the morning. She sounded terrible! I took her in to the doctor's office as soon as they opened. When I was checking in the lady at the front desk asked if she had the hiccups (she was asleep in the carseat) & I told her it was her breathing. She ran back & got me in fast. Then in the room the nurse was all nervous & went looking for a doctor, in the meanwhile 2 other doctors stopped by because they could hear her breathing. Once the doctor we were seeing came in she quickly took us back to another room to give her oxygen, a steroid shot, & a breathing treatment. After they had given her "more than they are normally comfortable giving" & she was still having difficulty breathing, they admitted her into the hospital.

When we first got up to the room she got a nebulizer treatment & then less than an hour later she was having difficulty breathing so they gave her another one. She was supposed to go to get an xray of her throat, but they were not comfortable taking her down, so they brought up the xray machine to the room. (Later she had to get another xray because it looked like she could have possibly had a swollen epiglottis, but luckily that ended up being a bad xray.) A little after that last treatment she was doing SO MUCH better!

While we were there they tried to give her a IV & poked her in 3 different places to put it in, but the poor girl is too chubby they couldn't get it in. They put a tube down her nose to test & make sure that she didn't have something else.

So the next day after another steroid treatment they released us around 11:00 AM. While I was at the hospital, I developed such compassion for all of the rooms we walked by. Many of the people & kids you could guess had spent a fair amount of their lives in the hospital. How hard & difficult! For me, not only do you feel like you are in prison because the rooms are so small, dark, & depressing, but the concern that you have for your child is indescribable!

So back to our story...we got home Saturday. That night she was ok. We woke up quite a few times & took her outside, though. Sunday morning she did not sound very good. We didn't know what to do. I called the Budge clinic after hours to see if either Sheryl Hodges or Dr. Garg was there, but it ended up only being this socially retarded doctor (I feel bad saying this), but there is no way that I wanted to take her there because I couldn't even carry a normal conversation with him enough to explain what is going on. I used to be in the same ward as Sheryl so I tracked her down. I'm embarrassed to say this, but I know her well enough. I would normally NEVER do this, especially if it was someone else. Anyway, I called her at her house & she had me bring Sophie over so she could listen to her. Of course by then Sophie sounded a lot better. She said to just keep watching & if things got worse I could call her or bring her by. I ended up going to half of church (feeling like I needed some peace) & when I got home Sophie started sounding bad again. I called Sheryl & she could hear her over the phone & said to talk her to the ER. So we did & they gave us a breathing treatment with the steroid & some mix of Ibuprofen & something else. They watched her for a couple hours (because the steroid makes your heart race so they need to monitor). Then they let us go home. That night was pretty good. We took her outside I think 3 times.

So Monday day was really good. She sounded better than she had. Well, that has ended now that it is 4:00 in the morning & we have been up with her since 12:30. I can't sleep because I want to make sure that she is ok & take her outside when she needs to go. So basically we have not had any decent sleep for a good 4 days. I know that so many other people are going through much worse things than this, but for now this is our trial & it is hard! I just feel sick inside because I don't know when to take her in, when to worry. We were worried when we took her in the first time, but we weren't as worried as we should have been. Now both Brandon & I are on edge, haven't gotten any "beauty" sleep (basically I look like crap), & have a lot of other things going on at the same time. The only good thing that I can get out of this is that I have been able to have more one on one time with Sophie than I normally do. She is a beautiful, happy baby, & used to love people. Now that she has been poked & prodded, I'm afraid she might be scarred for now! But hopefully we are getting closer to the end of this CRAPPY croup!