Croup

Well, we had our first experience with a sick child, and yes it was quite the experience...
It start off, Declan has always had a small wheeze in his voice, especially after he has been moving around a lot. When I asked the doctor about this she said he seemed out but if it got worse or he wheezed a lot that it could be ashma and to bring him in. So the Sunday of Easter, Declan started with a deep barking cough and a running nose. That night he was up most of the night with a cough and when he would cough it would irritate him so he would wake up crying. I spend the night in his room to help him and soothe him which seemed to help some. By 6 am he was wheezing really badly, this made him start crying and the combination was not could. It sounded like he could not breathe! I know the cold air could help so we stood with him outside to see if that would help some, and it just seemed to make Declan more upset. With all my suspecting fears that he had asmtha, I thought he was having an asmtha attack.
After about a half an hour of trying to calm him down he just seemed to be getting worse and it seemed that it was harder for him to breathe...Since the urgent was closed we packed up quickly to take him to the ER. Doug gave him a blessing before we left which helped and Delcan was able to come down and fall asleep in the car on the way there. Luckily the ER at the time was not very busy so they got declan right in. One look at him by the Doctor and she said he had croup. I felt relieved that it was not asmtha and she gave him a dose of steroids. The steroids helped to open up the airways so he could breathe better and to shrink the viral infection.
This seemed to make a huge difference and after that he seemed much better We gave him a few steam baths and after a couple of days, he was back to his normal happy self.
I am lucky that it was not anything worse and for modern medication that we have today! I hope he does not get sick for a while but we realize that children get sick a lot and this will be the first of many trips to the doctors.