Doctor Visit...

As I mentioned in the Week Forty One recap, Alexander started feeling under the weather on Sunday. He seemed to get progressively worse throughout the night - coughing, runny nose, phelgm, congestion, wheezing - typical crappy cold symptoms. But on top of those he had a fever, constant fussiness, sleeping often but not quality sleep, & not really wanting/able to eat. He certainly wasn't himself. One minute he'd be okay, the next minute he would sit on your lap crying quite hard with tears streaming down his face, then he would want to cuddle up on your shoulder.

Sunday night he didn't sleep well and was constantly coughing, moving around, trying to breathe, and whimpering in his sleep. Monday night was about the same but not as constant. So, he stayed home from school on Monday & Tuesday. I stayed with him Monday morning and then Dan came home to take the afternoon shift as I had a mandatory meeting I had to attend at work. Dan then stayed home with him all day on Tuesday.

I figured I'd see how he was on Monday and maybe it was just a quick passing cold, but if he was still the same or worse, I'd call the doctor. Since there wasn't a lot of change I thought it would be a good idea to bring him in. Thankfully we did. Lee (Dr. M’s wife) was very happy we did and she even said “you are very in tuned with your little one”

Dr M said he doesn’t just have a minor cold but because of his symptoms he is under the notion that he has RSV (Respiratory syncytial virus). His wheezing was pretty bad so thankfully Dr. M was able to hear it which helped determine that it wasn’t just a cold. He swabbed his nose to send to the lab to confirm RSV – we should hear back tonight or tomorrow by the latest. (Results came back from the lab and RSV is negative so the poor guy just has a really bad cold.)You could tell he wasn’t himself because one minute he would be fine and babble and then the next minute he would scream and cry pretty hard for no reason. He was miserable when Dr. M was just listening to his lungs. He didn’t have a temperature as we were there but he was warm. Dr said with this it’s quite common for the temp to go up & down several times. He also said that this is probably going to get worse before better because he’s only in Day 3 of a usual 8 Day long process.

We had a nebulizer treatment there in the office – and thankfully didn’t have to use a mask because I don't think Alexander would have taken to that but instead put the medicine/vapors in front of his face. He gave us one for home to use when he gets wheezy and unable to eat or settle down. He told us to use it about every 4 hours if he's really bad or when needed, especially right before bed. Dan seems pretty freaked out by the whole thing but my thinking is if we do this when needed then it will help reduce the risk of severe breathing problems where he’ll have to go to the ER.

What was cute was when we started to pack up to leave, Alexander would wave to Dr M. He did this a few times and Dr M seemed to get a kick out of this - although he sees this all the time, I'm sure.

Dan brought him home and the little guy wouldn't sleep so he hung out with Daddy for the rest of the afternoon. Once I got home, I gave him a bath which I was hoping would relax him a little before we did his next treatment. After his bath, he had some Motrin, his treatment (which he wasn't all that excited or happy for), Saline for his nose & Vicks on his chest. We certainly tried to front-load all of the preventive options so he won't be miserable for too long.

He's sleeping now but he keeps coughing, wheezing, and trying to breathe thru the snot. Hopefully the humidifer will kick in like it started to last night.