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January 26, 2000

What a week this has been! What I thought was a simple cold has turned into a medical nightmare for both Nathan and me. It all started a couple weeks ago when I came down with a cold. Mind you, this was not even an especially terrible cold ... just your run-of-the-mill sore throat, congestion and cough. Well as I began to treat my cold with over-the-counter meds, I saw that Nathan was starting to get a runny nose. I correctly assumed that he picked up my cold ... but it didn't stop there. What started out as just a runny nose for him soon turned into a terrible case of congestion and a really bad cough.

After watching his symptoms for a day, Rich and I correctly determined that he had croup. For those of you whose kids have had croup, you know how miserable it can be for the little ones. For those of you who have never had a child with croup, count your blessings. Basically it consists of watching your child struggle for air because of the congestion and listening to a horrible cough that sounds as harsh as a seal barking. No fun for anyone!!

Of course, we contacted Nathan's doctor who said to bring him in for an exam. As we learned by reading our kiddie books, there is no real treatment for most cases of croup. It is recommended that the child be placed in a bathroom with the hot shower running so there is enough steam to relieve some of the congestion, in addition to running a vaporizer at night (we did all this). However, after seeing and hearing Nathan, his doctor decided to take a more aggressive approach and prescribed three days of steroids for him. I thought this was a fine idea and immediately went to fill the prescription (anything to help the little guy feel better). But when I told Rich what the doctor suggested, he said "Stop the presses." Rich was very concerned about the possible side effects of ANY steroid usage ... especially in such a young child. So, after a long conversation with the doctor, we all agreed to take a wait and see approach, hoping the condition would get better on its own.

For the next two days Nathan seemed to be getting better, and we were relived that he was no longer so sick. Then came the third day, and while we were out running errands, Nathan began to have what I think were teething pains and was crying a whole lot. After a dose of pediatric Tylenol, he fell asleep, but we noticed that he was really laboring to breathe. After watching him for awhile, we called the doctor back and she said to take him to the ER! What a horrible experience ... to say we were worried is an understatement. As it turns out, Nathan ended up getting a cool-mist vapor treatment and a steroid shot in his thigh. Needless to say, we felt very guilty about not giving him the steroids in the first place. Every day we learn that no matter how hard we try to make the very best choices for him, there are times we will not always make the right choice. Hopefully we will be able to the right thing for him overall ... despite the mistakes along the way.

As a nice ending to a traumatic week, I finally came to grips with the realization that my cold was not getting better (in fact it was getting worse) and that I could possibly have bronchitis or even pneumonia (yikes!!). Hopefully the antibiotics I'm taking will take care of it, but this is one year that I wished I had just gotten the flu and been over it already.

In recuperation,

Debbie, Rich and Nathan