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Monday, March 24, 2008

Ah Croup...

I genuinely feel for those parents whose children get croup on a regular basis. Before a month or so ago, none of my children had ever had it. The "stridor" that they described could have sounded like a train whistle for all I knew. Well, when Sarah woke up in the middle of the night about 2 months ago, struggling to breath and sounding like she'd swallowed something furry, Jeff & I freaked out. I'd like to say I was calm and collected, but no. I was scared that she was going to die due to lack of oxygen. So, off to the ER at midnight we went.
Last night (or was it very early this morning....I can't remember), Jeff shakes me awake & says something to the effect of,"Sarah's crying, I think something's wrong." I go upstairs, and before I even get to the top, I hear the familiar sound of something furry trying to escape from Sarah's throat. She's on the floor, right before her bedroom door, freaking out cause she can't breath really well. Having been a fairly decent parent, and reading up on croup after the last incident, I knew first to try either a steamy bathroom or really cold air. So, I started up the scalding shower water to steam up the bathroom and we sat there for about 10 minutes. Then Jeff got the lucky job of standing outside on our deck (in Michigan, in March, you get the idea) with Sarah wrapped up in a blanket for about 10 minutes. Her stridor wasn't completely gone, but she was breathing a lot better. We decided against an ER trip, and brought her down to our room. She slept pretty fitfully, and still wasn't breathing completely normal, but it was a lot better than before.
This morning, she's doing fine. Has the funky breathing only every once in awhile. Kept her home from school just to be on the safe side. I think she might also be spiking a little fever, so there's no sense in exposing her classmates to this. Poor kid. She always gets the weird stuff at an age when you'd think she'd be beyond it. Case in point: last year around this time, both Katie & Sarah got their first ear infections. Sarah was THREE and Katie was ONE. Who ever hears about 3 years olds getting their FIRST ear infection? That's generally something you deal with when they're infants. This croup thing is the same thing. She didn't have a history, so where is this coming from? Just add that to the long list of health questions I have pertaining to Sarah. This kid is a medical enigma, no explanations for anything. Just thanking my lucky stars that croup isn't contagious.

1 comment:

Shannon @ Gabi's World said...

Oh poor baby! Glad mama knew what to do!