Sick Baby Luke

We have had a sick baby on our hands for a week or so now. It started last Friday. I picked Luke up from school and noticed that he was congested and had a slight fever. As the weekend progressed, he became more fussy and the fever became more of an issue. By Sunday night, I decided that I would stay home with him on Monday just as a precaution because his coughing was so extreme and he was clearly having a difficult time breathing due to the drainage in his throat.

Monday went by and was pretty uneventful. Around 2PM, however, Luke did something he has never done- he fell asleep sitting up. This might seem silly but it was truly alarming to me because I knew he must not feel good. He always fights sleep like crazy so for him to do fall asleep while "playing" was unheard of.

I went ahead and put him down and when he woke up an hour later, he was on fire. Like, alarmingly so. He was so warm that I rushed to give him Motrin before even taking his temperature. After doing so, I took his temp and it was 104.1. I panicked. I called Dustin at work and he told me that I would probably need to take him to the ER but to call the pediatrician first. When I got a hold of the ped's office, they told me to give him a luke warm bath and to give the Motrin time to kick in. If within the hour it had not reduced, I was to take him to the ER. In the meantime, we made an appointment for Tuesday morning to see the doctor.

I followed all of the steps and steadily his temperature declined. Tuesday morning we went to see Dr. Koeppel and she tested him for a handful of illnesses including RSV, Flu, and Strep. They were all negative. She looked in his ears and noticed that the double ear infection we've been battling is still not completely gone and then she checked his breathing. She was alarmed at whatever she heard and told me to grab our things quickly and whisked us away into a different area of the office where she did a breathing treatment on him. She told me that she thought he had Pneumonia but needed a chest x-ray to be sure. After the treatment was complete, she listened again and said it already sounded better. She gave me directions to go get a chest x-ray immediately, then I was to go to a local health store to get a nebulizer, and then to publix to get his Rx filled.

Exhausted after screaming through the treatment :(

I left the doctor's office with a baby on each hip and completely overwhelmed! I called my wonderful husband to let him know what was going on and by the grace of God, his schedule was clear for the next 2 hours. We headed straight to his office and he took the lead. After picking him up, he took us across the street to the x-ray facility and then to the health store for the nebulizer. He has such a calm to him that it was amazing to know that he was not concerned and that everything would be ok :)

Waiting with Daddy on the Xray

Sick Baby

While he was in the x-ray room with Luke, he asked the technician to send the x-ray to his office as well. By the time the boys and I were back home safe and sound, Dust had received the report and was able to relay to me that there was no sign of pneumonia. HALLELUJAH!

Bubby Luvins'

Shortly afterward, the ped called with the same information. We made a follow up appointment for the following day and continued giving breathing treatments throughout the evening/night. When we returned on Wednesday, she diagnosed him with Bronchilitus and said we need to continue the breathing treatments 3x daily and to return Friday.

Sammy the Seal :)

So, we were all able to return to school/work on Thursday and made it through both Thursday and Friday. Friday after school, I grabbed the boys and back to the doctor we went. This time, we saw Dr. Walker who basically said to continue the breathing treatments for 3 weeks, even when we think the issue has cleared up. We continued through the weekend and it went smoothly. He is coughing less and less and his congestion is clearing up as well. His fever is gone and we are confident that the worst is behind us!

Please continue to pray for healing for our baby love! He makes our world go round!