Oh what a day!

And it wasn't good. Mr. Luke has had a cough for a few weeks. I didn't think there was much to be done for it, so I did nothing. But then this past weekend it got worse - really phlegmy and sad. So I called the doctor and couldn't get in until today, Wednesday morning. I LOVE my pediatrician here. I spent the last two years in College Station cursing my old one and I am thrilled with the one we've got. Unfortunately one of the things I love about her (she actually talks to you) is also what causes our trips to the doctor to be about a two hour ordeal. If I didn't like her so much we would have definitely switched.

So I geared us all up for our big trip. And went expecting to hear that I was overreacting and there was nothing to be done but wait it out (what I heard practically every time I took Ava in, in College Station, with similar symptoms). What I heard was quite different.

As she listened to his lungs, I told her there were really no symptoms besides this lung-rattling cough and he was having more trouble than usual falling asleep. And he's had no fever and has been his happy, smiley, talkative self. Well, she was concerned by the wheezing she heard. They checked his oxygen levels and they were at 90%. A- right?, I thought remembering the grading scale from school. Wrong. They said that was not good. So they did a breathing treatment with a nebulizer there in the office. Loud and scary to Ava and Luke! After the treatment he was better at 95% but still not great. She ordered a chest x-ray and oh yeah, he has an ear infection too. I was feeling worse as a mother with each passing second. My poor little guy had not given me any clues as to what was going on inside him. When Ava is sick, you know it!! But here was my tender baby, just being so happy and sweet. It made me feel awful. The doctor did agree with me and said she probably would have done the same as I did and that usually someone with that kind of respiratory distress shows more signs.
Today also taught me that I would never make it as a single parent. Dan, I love you! Between carrying the carseat with a heavy baby in it, my bag, my umbrella, my stack of papers and perscriptions, a bag with the nebulizer I get to take home for more breathing treatments, and holding on to Ava's finger and picking up her stuffed puppy dog and puppy house she brought, I really thought I might lose my marbles. "Down this hall, Ms. Colton...Register with radiology right here...then wait over there... come in this office...I have to go potty... go wait back out there, Ms. Colton" And then the kicker, "We can't do the x-ray with her (Ava) here. You'll have to get someone to come and get her." Luckily it was near lunch time so Dan ran over from work and took Ava to Wendy's where I met them a short time later. But that was only after his x-ray, which may have been the most heart-breaking part of this whole day.

There is a table with leg holes cut out and a baby size bicycle seat. The technician has me hold his arms straight over his head while she clamps a clear plastic tube so tightly around his whole body. Only his tiny fingers poke out over the top and his tiny face peeks out of a circle cut-out. As you can imagine he does not think this is very cool. He's crying and I feel like such a meany as I keep holding his little fingers. I'm talking to him telling him everything is okay, and he looks up at me with his cheeks smashed up against the plastic tube and he smiles. That's my Luke. Here he was in this heinous contraption having been tortured plenty for one day and he still finds the gumption to smile at his mama. I just love this guy!

So to make a long story just a little longer, the x-rays were clear-no pneumonia. We have to give him the treatments with the nebulizer every four hours (and through the night) for the next 2 days and then every 6 hours for the next 2 days after that, and so on. ( He hates this by the way) And of course his antibiotics. We'll go back in 10 days and hopefully he'll be as good as new. Phew, what a day!

Baby torture

And oh yeah, the cherry on top, Ava, who hasn't had an accident in over a week, pees on our bed tonight! Oh man, I'm glad it's bedtime!