Cal's Breathing Scare

Breathing is something we've learned a little bit about since Crewe was born. We never dreamed that we would need to use what we learned with Calahan.

It all started on Tuesday with an occasional cough. Cal had a little cold about a week previous so I didn't think it was any big deal. Plus, he was acting normal and didn't have a fever or any other symptoms. On Wednesday his cough grew stronger and by late Wednesday night I could hear him wheezing in his sleep. I called the pediatrician on call at 3:00 am and explained what was happening and told her I had the equipment and medicine to do a breathing treatment. She told me not to do a breathing treatment, but to put Cal in a hot shower instead.

I should have followed my instinct and given him a breathing treatment because on Thursday morning he continued to wheeze and seemed to be short of breath. I took him to the pediatrician and they did a breathing treatment with Cal kicking and screaming the whole time. The doctor wasn't satisfied with the results of the treatment and sent us to get a chest x-ray. The radiologist said that his lungs looked "junky" and suggested that the pediatrician treat it like pneumonia.

So... the pediatrician called in an antibiotic and told us to keep doing the breathing treatments and said he should be fine. That night Cal continued to wheeze and began having chest refractions. He was unresponsive to the breathing treatments so at 2:00 am I loaded him into the car and took him to the ER at Phoenix Children's.

The respiratory therapists immediately went to work, giving him industrial strength treatments and steroids. His oxygen saturation levels kept going down after the treatments so they transferred him to the intensive care unit where the treatments could continue under carefully monitoring. I almost didn't recognize my little guy with so many wires, masks and the IV connected to him. His breathing finally stabilized in the ICU at about noon. By the evening he was stable enough to move to the general floor in the hospital.

The treatments and steroids continued on the floor until he needed them just every four hours. The little man started acting like himself again complete with singing and jumping on the hospital bed. With a promise to keep up the treatments every four hours, the hospital let us take him home late yesterday afternoon. He's still doing well 24 hours later.

The cause of his breathing issues are a mystery. He's never had a breathing problem before and he tested negative for the flu, RSV, and all of the other viruses they test for at the hospital. He still has not had a fever. The doctors think it could be the beginnings of asthma. Apparently a child has to be a little older and have several respiratory events for asthma to be diagnosed. We are keeping our fingers crossed that this is a one-time event.

We are really proud of the way the Calaman handled everything. Hospitals are scary to me as a grownup so I can only imagine how scary it felt to Cal. He got to the point that whenever he saw someone wearing scrubs and a mask he would say "NO like it" as loud has he could. He was so excited to get out of his hospital room that he left running and didn't slow down as he emphatically yelled "BYE-BYE hospital."