Rough Month of Being Sick
It’s been a rough month for lil man. Or actually two months. He caught a cold early November. Two weeks after he was over that cold, he caught another cold after Thanksgiving. Not exactly the way we wanted to kick off the holiday season.
His cold became a bad cold which then lead to sinustitis. We gave him antibiotics for the sinus infection. Then not long after that he started coughing. The pediatrician thought it might be a sign of pneumonia because the cough came later than the rest of his cold, but he didn’t have one major symptom – wheezing.
So, after two doctor visits, all we could do was monitor him for signs of wheezing and shortness of breath and finish his medication.
Thankfully, end the week of December 12th, he got better. We were excited. He had his 18 month wellness visit on the 19th which went well.
Christmas Eve came and so did a new cough for lil man. We were trying to figure out why after five days another cough would begin. Then December 26th early morning a fever started. We called the pediatrician. The night doctor said it sounded like a new cold was starting. She recommended fever reducer for the next two days and continue his cough medicine again.
Two days later his fever broke in the morning, but after his afternoon nap it came back. Being it was day four, we called the pediatrician again. They asked us to bring lil man in.
Off we went that early evening to the pediatrician for yet another visit…his fourth one.
Pediatrician: has he had trouble breathing?
Me: not really, only when he has a stuffy nose.
Pediatrician: no wheezing?
Me: no, not that we’ve noticed
Pediatrician: how’s he sleeping
Me: not too bad. He coughs a bit, but goes back to sleep.
Pediatrician: how long has he had the fever?
Me: since late Christmas night early morning the 26th
Pediatrician: What’s the highest temp he’s had?
Me: 101.
She checked his ears, lungs and nose.
Her only conclusion was he had a new cold because he again didn’t have any wheezing or shortness of breath. No ear infection. Sinus infection cleared up.
We were sent home with instructions to continue his cough medicine and give fever reducer. She also said if we wanted we could give him something for the runny/stuff nose also. And basically, just wait, watch and listen for that wheezing to see if he might have pneumonia or bronchitis.
A good friend of mine is a pediatric nurse, so I was talking to her about all of this also. She confirmed the symptoms did lead to the possibility of pneumonia or bronchitis. Then reminded me to keep the cold mist humidifier running at night and start up our air purifier to clean the air.
We decided to do all that, plus a little more. We also
It’s now a week later and thankfully, it looks like lil man is getting better.
I’ve been thinking about how he caught this last cold and all I can come up with is, the Thursday night before Christmas, we were cleaning the house. Because both lil man and I are allergic to dust, we try to be very careful when cleaning. I can get really ill when I inhale dust. Cough, cold, fever…the works.
Despite how careful we were, I think dust got into the air and into lil man’s lungs. Because as I look at his symptoms, they’re exactly the same symptoms I get when it happens to me.
Thankfully, hubs has been home the last two weeks on vacation from work, but he goes back to work tomorrow and I now have a cold and cough. All I hope is it doesn’t pass back to lil man.