Urgent Care

When Oliver woke up on Saturday morning at my parents' house, I noticed that he had developed a cough. I started giving him a nebulizer treatment every twelve hours. He didn't eat lunch or dinner yesterday, but when he woke up this morning (an hour earlier than usual), the first words out of his mouth were "I hungry," and he ate a large breakfast. I took him to church thinking he just had his frequent cough. After church he didn't want lunch and just said he was tired and wanted to go to bed. I was doing a little shopping during his nap, and Paul called me when Oliver woke up to tell me Oliver was definitely sick. I was already on my way home. He had a 102 degree fever and was having more trouble breathing. Paul had given him Tylenol, and I gave him an Albuterol breathing treatment. It didn't seem to help much so I called his pediatric pulmonologist. I asked if we should start the oral steroids, but he said in light of the fever we shouldn't start those until he had been seen by a doctor to rule out an infection or pneumonia.

Thankfully I found an urgent care clinic that was open. I say thankfully because the co-pay for that is $50 compared to $100 at the ER. I had checked his saturation level at home, and it was reading between 91-93, and we learned the device is accurate because the nurse got readings of 92-93. The doctor said she was considering admitting him in light of what happened in late December/ early January, but in the end she made the same decision the pediatrician made in December to send us home with oral steroids. Hopefully this won't lead to his lung collapsing again. The x-ray looked good today, and the nose swab was negative for RSV. He did keep some of the steroid down, but he threw some of it up even though we had it mixed in chocolate pudding. It smells and tastes horrid. I made spaghetti for dinner as I know that's one of his favorites, and he did eat a little bit of it. The doctor said to check his O2 level often and bring him in ASAP if it drops below 90 because that will likely mean his lung collapsed. I didn't want to go to the hospital today, but I'd rather be spending the night in the hospital if it meant his lung didn't collapse. Chest tubes aren't fun! Hopefully it will turn out better than it did five months ago, and we can avoid another hospitalization. Right now he's on three medications plus Tylenol for the fever, and he's definitely working hard to breathe.