Wednesday, January 21, 2009

The Perfect Storm


That is how Ben's doctor described him this morning. What a time it was! He's got an ear infection, a nose running like a faucet causing the skin under his nose to be bright red and raw, he is wheezing something awful and has a nasty cough. It seems like there isn't much that he doesn't have right now! So, first order of business was to listen to the breathing. Very tight and forced. So we did a 10 minute breathing treatment. After that, the doctor came in and said that she wanted to check his pulse-ox before giving him a steroid injection for his lungs. His pulse-ox ended up being only 87, when it should have been at least 92. The MA said that was "very bad". So the doctor had me give him a second breathing treatment and added a second medication to the mix to try to open up his airway better. After that, his pulse-ox measured 93. Whew! I was then informed that if it hadn't have gone above 92 after the second treatment, we would have been making a trip to the hospital, so we are VERY thankful to have dodged that bullet! So he was able to get his steroid injection, and then we had to hang out for 15 minutes to make sure he didn't have any reactions to the medications. He also got an antibiotic shot for his ear infection. They need to treat this infection a bit more aggressively since he just had one in the same ear 3 weeks ago and that was treated with the more potent of the 2 standard antibiotics for ear infections. So the poor baby got 2 pokes and 2 breathing treatments at the doctor today. They also gave us a lovely parting gift... our very own nebulizer! So now we get to do breathing treatments every 4 hours. You're jealous, I know. But after our trip to the doctor today, he has been doing so much better. He is definitely on his way to being our old Benny again. Since his breathing was so bad today, they want to see him back again tomorrow for a recheck, but after that, we hope we're in the clear. He'll have a few days of oral antibiotics and steroids, but it definitely looks like the worst is over. These kids don't get sick much, but when they do, they really go for it!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Oh wow, how rough! My heart really goes out to poor Ben, and to you! It's so scary when they're having trouble breathing. I hope he continues on the road to recovery and is feeling better soon!