Croup?

So it's getting to a point where we have to stop and ask ourselves, "when will this madness end?" The bug that's been finding comfort in the Camero household struck again, this time taking Isaiah down with a case of Croup. You may be asking yourself the same question I was the other night, "what the heck is croup?"

What is Croup?

Now that you know what croup is, here's what happened to the little man. Saturday night, Enz & I were enjoying a quiet night at home with a little bit of Wii competition. We stayed in for our anniversary, mainly because Enz was still trying to get over her sinus infection. Right around midnight, we heard Isaiah fussing around in his room, and he didn't sound like he was comfortable. After going in to check on him, I heard him cough rather violently and had Enza come in the room so she could hear it. When we picked him up he was breathing heavily, almost as if he was having difficulty, and he was also wheezing. We gave him his inhaler, which seemed to help him calm down and breathe a little easier, but his cough was keeping him from relaxing.

Enza immediately contacted the on-call advice nurse, and she automatically mentioned that it could be croup, judging solely on what Enz told her. She recommeded that we sit Isaiah in the bathroom with the hot water running so that the steam would help his breathing. It helped for the most part, and after about 20 minutes of the steam, the nurse called back to check on Isaiah. She listened to his breathing and coughing over the phone and then suggested we take him into the Emergency Room.

At 1:30am, we drove Isaiah over to the hospital, and they treated him for croup. He received a dose of prednizone to help reduce the effects of his restricted airway, some tylenol for his fever which was around the 101-102 degree mark, and a 20 minute cold-air treatment, which did wonders for his breathing. By the time we left the hospital it was a little after 4am - not a fun way to spend a Saturday night/Sunday morning. We brought the little man home, and he was able to rest easy for the remainder of the night/morning. Yesterday, he was in a terrific mood and we were all pretty surprised to say the least. His cough has gotten a little better, though they say that the symptoms typically last about 5-7 days. Now we're doing our best to keep Makenna from getting it. That's near impossible the way these two play together, but if she does catch it, we'll be that much more informed about it. Happy Monday!

Isaiah's "OH NO" pose...

Makenna cheeses it up as she teaches Isaiah the alphabet...