Nicky was up again in the night, and something was really wrong this time. We called the pediatrician and she recommended that we go to the emergency room. She said that usually, you need a stethascope to hear the sounds that she could hear from Nicky over the phone, so it was important for us to go right away. We went to Strong Memorial Hospital because of their pediatric emergency room.
We were there for just under 3 hours. In that time, Nicky got two nebulized treatments of albuterol, a medication to open up his airways. He also had both of his nostrils swabbed to test for RSV, which came back negative. We gave him a loading dose of prednisone, a steroid, before we left as well. He was really good for all of these things, all things considered.
His official diagnosis is bronchiolitis. They were very specific to say that he had wheezing but not asthma. They said that asthma is a pattern of events, and that this is a one-time airway problem, probably due to a virus that he picked up earlier in the week at the museum. It still makes me scared that he might be more likely to develop asthma because of this infection.
Now that we’re home, we need to give Nicky 2 puffs of his inhaler every four hours for the next 24 hours, and then as needed. We also need to give him 4 more days of prednisone liquid. We have a follow-up appointment with Nicky’s regular pediatrician on Monday afternoon.
I had to go to work for a little while, but luckily someone was able to cover the rest of my shift so that I could leave at 1pm. Chuck stayed home with Nicky and played with him and gave him a little nap and more food. I have to say, during all of this, Nicky certainly has an appetite! He’s been eating like we never feed him, which is good!
I’m hoping that we’re now over the worst. According to the paperwork we were sent home with, the wheezing can last for about a week and the coughing can persist for up to 2 weeks. Hopefully, he’s a quick healer like me and will bounce right back after a night of restful sleep. Now, if we can just find a way to achieve that…