A Scoup of Croup

Well early Friday morning, and by early I mean 0000 hours, Mr. Porter woke up in a crazy coughing fit. He couldn’t catch his breath, couldn’t stop coughing, and couldn’t help but cry in between coughs. Even after sitting up he couldn’t stop coughing. I offered him a drink of water but he turned it down stating “owie cough”. Then came the wheezing. Porter has been sick on occasion but fortunately it’s never gotten really bad. This was the first time I’d ever heard him wheezing. It was unknown if he had swallowed something, although highly unlikely since he was sleeping, however there was also the possibility of the H1N1 virus, or a variety of illnesses floating around daycare. The cough sounded a bit croupy but drier than I thought croup sounded so off to the ER we went, because nothing ever happens when InstaCare or the regular doc is open.

We arrived at Alta View around 0030 and signed in. Due to his cough we had to put a mask on. The staff there was so nice and gave us our own waiting room. After about fifteen minutes the nurse took us back and got his information. I was so tired I gave them the wrong date of birth. She corrected me and we laughed. She said “sometimes we make a typo and sometimes it’s just one o’clock in the morning”.

We headed down the hallway through construction and sickness to an actual room rather than the other patients that were separated by curtain only. Porter admired his matching wristband and mask and laid patiently waiting for the doctor. Eventually she came in and checked him out. She tried to get him to cough but of course he had stopped at this point. She gave me the option of waiting for x-rays or just treating the croup. We chose to just get to the treatment and after they gave him a steroid for the swelling in the throat I could tell he felt much better.

The nicest nurse came in and set up his breathing treatment and then we just hung out for another thirty minutes letting him breathe in the cool mist. He was entertained by it for about ten minutes and then it was twenty minutes of me trying to come up with games to go along with it.

Eventually we were discharged from Alta View and made our way back home where we could finally get some sleep. For our first ER visit it went well with a outcome. Let’s hope any that follow will have similar results.