An ordeal

Thursday morning, 6 a.m., Joe Joe wakes up screaming at the top of his lungs, "OWIE!"

Our day didn't get better. Joe Joe was a BUMP all morning. He just laied on the floor where ever he was, would fall asleep for a few minutes then wake up screaming for the next half and hour-- repeated this cycle countless times over the course of the morning.

Since we just moved, we don't have doctors yet. Joe was nice enough to call some places from the office for me while I tried to console the inconsolable. We found a place that said they would see Joe Joe at 1 p.m..

Joe Joe's breathing was raspy, shallow, and full of effort. His tummy was doing most the work, and you could see it with his shirt off. I was worried. One o'clock was a long way away.

We got through the morning, and raced to the doctor as soon as I could get the kids out the door. At the office, they gave him albuterol using a nebulizer and a steroid to try and open his lungs which were constricted considerably. No luck. The doctor told me, "You need to get him to the hospital. I don't think we need an ambulance, I think he will be ok if you leave now and go straight there. I am worried about his lungs constricting any more."

Off we went.

There is a hospital 5 minutes away from our new house, but apparently it doesn't cater well to children, and they would send us to a different hospital anyway. Oddly enough, the pediatrician sent us to INOVA Fairfax. Five minutes from our old house, and where Joe Joe was born. It takes about 25-30 minutes to get there from where we are now. Not bad, but I was yelling at everyone on the highway who wouldn't let me in a lane, or, who in my opinion, was going too slow. I was like momma bear. Luckily, both kids had fallen asleep so they didn't hear my inhumanity to man. Although, I bet they had some strange dreams....

Joe met us at the hospital, and we were admitted right away, they were expecting us.

It took a few tense hours and many doses of the albuterol nebulizer to get Joe Joe's lungs to relax enough that he could breathe. The ER doctors initially though that he would have to stay over night to receive the treatments about every 2-4 hours to keep his lungs open. He responded so well, they sent us home to do the same thing here, with instruction to watch him closely for relapse, blueness, or no change. It was a long night, but we got through it, and Joe Joe is feeling much better today. He didn't have pneumonia or RSV, but had a viral lung infection, and double ear infection. What caused it? We don't know. It seems when ever he catches a cold, it goes straight for his lungs. They suspect he may have asthma, and his lungs are just susceptible to the worst case scenario.

We will go back to the pediatrician for a follow-up, and I would suspect that he is going to have to be on some sort of regiment, perhaps daily, to help him and protect him from situations like this one.

What an ordeal. Thank goodness for modern medicine.