My Happy Wheezer.

So, I will now continue on with our sickness adventures. On Friday Ruby looked a lot better, but the boys still sounded terrible, wheezing so loudly. I didn’t like that at all, so as soon as they were taking calls, I contacted the pediatrician and told them the haps. They told me to bring all three in immediately, which I did. The babies were acting fine and happy, so I didn’t think we needed to rush, but I followed instructions and mom and I made our way to the office.

When the doctor saw them, she said that Ruby was fine, but the boys were definitely wheezing, and she could see that their lungs were retracting a little, and wanted to treat them with a nebulizer. The thought of trying to hold a mask on the boys’ faces for 10 minutes sounded nearly impossible (little did I know what was to come). They let us take off the masks and just hold the medicinal mist in the faces, which wasn’t so bad. It was a little tricky when Ruby started to get bored, but I’ve learned a lot about multi-tasking this past year, so we made it. The doctor cleared Alex, saying he sounded better, but she was still concerned about Bennett. We started another round, and this time the mask had to go on, which he didn’t like at all. He started in the stroller to give my tired arms a break, but soon settled down for a moment, stopped trying to rip off the mask, and even smiled a little. Mom took the other two for a walk, and I snuggled my little boy as he inhaled the medicine. Again, the doctor listened and still didn’t like what she heard. She could see that he was happy, so she knew he wasn’t struggling too much, but wanted to fix it before it got worse. She calls babies like this Happy Wheezers. She gave us a nebulizer to use at home, but also wanted him to go to the ER so get a more intense treatment. So, I dropped off mom and the others, and off to the hospital we went, after picking up a bottle for him, and a sandwich for me. Thankfully he slept through all the driving, the poor exhausted boy

Luckily when you have a wheezing baby, and your doctor calls in advance, and it’s not after hours, you get in pretty quickly (relatively speaking). So we made it to our curtained area and got checked out. They still saw the retractions and decided to do a heavy-duty nebulizer treatment. Ugh. But this time it had to run for an entire hour. (And I thought 10 minutes was bad. Ha.) The doctor said we’d be on our way as soon as it was over.

I wasn’t sure what was in store as we began. It seemed like he was curious as first, but as I kept him close to me, keeping his usually-busy hands away from the mask, he knew it wasn’t fun anymore. He’d scream for a while, then just give up and go limp, sometimes looking up at me with his sad eyes wondering why I was doing such a mean thing to him. I hadn’t slept well at all the night before, due to all the wakefulness from my sick babies, so I was rather exhausted myself. I pulled every trick I had from my bag, feeling not at all prepared. He loved looking at books, scrolling through the pictures and videos on the camera, and the doctor even offered to take one of us both. He also loved when I brushed his hair with a soft baby brush. When the hour (or more) was finally over, Bennett was so happy, and jittery from the meds. But he was also tired, he wouldn’t even hold his bottle. We were both relieved and ready to get home.  But there was a shift change, so we had to wait another hour, or so it seemed, to be seen. The new doctor said he was still sounding pretty bad. I almost cried when she said we’d have to repeat the treatment. I really didn’t think either of us could do it again. We just decided to get it over with, and luckily this one wasn’t as long, only about 30-40 minutes. He went through the same cycle: scream (to the point of sweating, and turning almost purple), become too tired to move, try to take it off, scream. . . We were definitely spent. He was so happy to have that thing off his little face. (The toothbrush is a new favorite toy.)

After several hours in the ER, they finally let us go, with a few prescriptions (not including two from my regular pediatrician), an inhaler, and all kinds of nebulizer equipment. She told me to go ahead and treat Alex too, since they are identical. I was tired, and happy to go home, and so was Bennett. He fell asleep as soon as we hit the road.

So, we begin a new adventure with asthma thrown into craziness.  We’ve been doing treatments every 4-6 hours for both the boys until they are over this sickness (though not during the night), which is much easier in the comfort of your own home than in a boring ER cubical. They are still both pretty wheezy, and all three are coughing like chain smokers, but I feel like we are in the home stretch. I understand that asthma is a pretty common problem, and not always serious, but it’s new to me, and slightly overwhelming. But if it will keep my kiddos happy and healthy, I’ll do whatever is required of me. (My other Happy Wheezer.)