I haven't blogged in a while... mostly due to being a little stressed and a lot tired!
Last Wednesday, my son Diego got sick with the flu. He had a fever but we were keeping it down with motrin. But on Thursday morning, he woke me up cuz I heard him coughing. He was standing next to my bed and saying that he couldn't breathe. I jusmped up right away! He was gasping for air and coughing and crying all at the same time. My husband woke up too and we both were in a panic. The first thing he did was swoop him up in his arms and held him. He tried to calm him down and get him to breathe in and out normally. He sounded like he was wheezing very hard and very loud. As they were doing this... I woke up my daughter, put her shoes on, and put my son's shoes on. All I could think of was that he needed to see a doctor.
In about 5 minutes we were in our car and out the door. Luckily their pediatrician is a 1 minute drive from our house. They have a "sick entrance" as they call it, somewhat like an urgent care attached to their main office. So we went in and signed him in. He was still breathing very heavy, almost wheezing, and you could hear that he was having a hard time breathing still. My husband sat with him keeping him calm as I talked to the receptionist.
She asked me if I had an appointment. I said no. She asked me what I was there for. So I proceeded to tell her what had happened in the last 10 minutes. She turned to me and said, "Well, we can only see him if he has an appointment." I was caught off guard... and thought in my head... "Did I walk through the right entrance?" as I glanced at the door and saw it indeed say "Sick Entrance". So I tell the receptionist... "Isn't this the sick entrance, why would you need an appointment?" She goes on to tell me that it was a new policy but I was welcome to wait a while and see if they could get a nurse to talk to me... blah blah blah. That made me furious! I turned to her and said, "That is ridiculous! If I knew my son was gonna get so sick to the point where he has trouble breathing, I would have made an appointment last week!" By this time my voice was no longer quiet. Call me a crazy lady, call me a hormal pregnant mad woman, call me what you wish but that was absurd! My husband quickly tried to get me to calm down and sit and wait, beacuse he knew it was unusual for me to get mad and start causing commotion. That was his forte. And rightfully true, I don't get angered quite easily, but when it comes to my babies, the mama tiger in me comes out.
So I walked out of the office vowing to never go back there again. I had my husband call his sister who works at another pediatrician's office. I went there the day my daughter was sick a few weeks ago with blisters in her mouth and I really liked the Doctor there. Her doctor wrote her off saying she had an ear infection... but I kept mentioning that she might have blisters in her mouth. He prescribed her with Anitbiotics for her "ear infection" and that was it. When I took her to my SIL's pediatrician. The doctor right away searched her mouth and discovered she indeed have blisters in her mouth and prescribed me with a medication that would make them go away.
So, he called her and she sqeezed us in. We drove straight over there and he was seen. Like I said, I really liked this place. The doctor listened to my account of what we had just went through. And she asked me if he had asthma. I told her to my knowledge he didn't but that ever since he was born I noticed that when he got sick, he'd always wheeze. Since he was 8 months old I asked his doctor if he had asthma and they always told me he was fine. Also I told that he was a very active boy but sometimes when he would run too much he would have coughing fits like he was out of breath. I always found it a little strange but again it was shrugged off.
This doctor found it quite strange so she did some tests... listenend to his lungs and indeed felt that he had a slight case of asthma and possibly allergies. His eyes were puffy and red and he did sneeze a lot. She started him on a breathing treatment and after 15 minutes we noticed a huge difference! His breathing sounded clearer. And he didn't look so strained. After that they prescribed him some medications and put in our order for our nebulizer (breathing machine) and sent him for some chest x-rays just in case.
I was relieved that he was taken care of so quickly and that they had answers to our questions. Being young parents most people look at us like idiots when it comes to our kids. And me and my husband ask a million questions. He, more than anyone, wants to be informed and educated on anything that pertains to our children. The doctor answered all of our questions no matter how silly they sounded. I made the decision to switch both of my babies to that doctor instead.
Now all I can say is that I have one very brave 4 year old boy! He went through so many scary tests that day I don't even know if I could do that. I know that his Daddy and I were more terrified for him then he was. He did freak out a little when he did that breathing treatment. He didn't like that mask. But Daddy was quickly there to hold him in his lap and whisper in his ear to keep on breathing normally.
On a side note: I love to see the way my husband interacts with our kids when they are vulnerable. I think it makes him vulnerable. He constantly has to have them in his arms or he wakes up 30 times a night to check on them. I think he needs to know what's going on with them at all times to feel like he's somehow protecting them. It's a wonderful side to see because my husband doesn't show his soft side very much.
Update: Diego is doing much better and should be able to go back to school tomorrow. He still going to be his breathing treatments 3-4 times a day and now taking Claratin for his allergies. It's something that we've all had to adjust to but it seems to be helping so we'll continue on!
