ER: Round 8...I think...lost count....

Saturday morning I woke up to Melissa screaming,"You broke it! You broke it!!"

Not what a mother wants to hear...at any time, but really doesn't what to be woken up by that.

I raced into the front of the house and was greeted with Melissa say, "He broke it! He broke the no ER streak!"

Deep relief that this is what Melissa was yelling about. And yes. Our 'no er streak' has come to an end after about 22 months.

As I said in early post William has been sick all week with one 911 call Wednesday. By Friday evening William and I really thought he was on the mend. Then as he was getting ready for bed he started to cough. And could. not. stop.

For well over an hour he coughed and coughed. Since it sounds like croup, I tried all the croup home remedies....breathing in cold air...breathing in moist air....nothing worked. He was so weak and had a hard time catching his breath.

So, I called 911. Again.

This time the ER doctor (whom the med techs were in contacted with) said he needed to be seen. I had called a neighbor to come over when I called 911, so Irene (thank you, thank you Irene!!! What a great friend!) stayed at the house with the sleeping Melissa and Benjamin.

Within about ten minutes of driving William quite coughing and fell asleep. I gave serious thought to turning around taking him back home. But I kept driving.

Since the med techs called ahead, they were excepting us and so we did not wait very long before we were taken to the back. After hooking him up to all the monitors the doctor came to check him out. The first thing out of his mouth?

"Is he up to date on his vaccinations??"

"Uhh. yeah. I think so."

"Well, there's white matter in his throat and that could mean pertussis. I never seen a true case, but lets check it out." Totally shock on my part.

Checking it out meant a trip down to x-Ray. I was sort of surprised that I had to take William myself - not with a nurse or orderly. And we were given the widest wheelchair I had ever seen. I mean there was room for William and I both to sit. I actually had a hard time getting through one door.

Since the x-Ray showed some swelling in his neck, the doctor decided to look down his throat with a scope. ooo. yuck.

To prepared William for this they gave him a nose spray, then sprayed lidocaine down his throat. After they did that, the nurses left the room to get the doctor and William asked me, "What are they fixing to do??"

"Uh....oh...um...." Then the nurses and doctor walked back in, "I'll let them tell you."

But William was a champ. He sat very still. While the doctor was not able to see as deep as he wanted, he did see enough to see that it was mostly drainage. He ended up giving William a different type of cough medicine (since what he was given on Thursday was not working). This cough medicine actually makes your throat numb so you don't feel the tickle or the urge to cough. He was also given antibiotics.

Saturday brought William still very ill - now with a sore throat - which could have been from the scope. Sunday morning he was still feeling bad, but by the end of the afternoon he turned a corner and has started to feel better. Finally. I'm praying that it will stick this time.


So. glad. I'm done with the ill. The ER doctor did ask for William to be seen on Monday as a follow-up, so he'll miss at least some of school tomorrow, but I'm hoping that he'll get an early appointment in order to be able to attend school most of the day.

One of the funny things about this is when William and I walked in the door Irene told us that Drew called to see what was going on because he had been noticed (he in Hawaii for a conference). Really? They called him???

deep sigh. Yes, that's what it means to live on an Air Force base.