ER visit

Monday night around 6pm Jeff and I noticed that Cooper was having a difficult time breathing. So Jeff gave him a nebulizer treatment. The treatment only seemed to help him for about 15-20 minutes, usually a treatment should help for at least 2-4 hours. So at 8pm Jeff gave Cooper another treatment, which didn't help either and then a third treatment at 10pm, which didn't help either. So at 11:30pm we took Cooper into the ER. We were called back right away, which was WONDERFUL! Cooper's oxygen saturation was 88%. A normal, healthy person's saturation's should be 98-100%. The Dr. was not sure why Cooper was under respiratory distress. Cooper was given another nebulizer treatment, at first the respiratory therapist probably thought we were crazy because Cooper sounded great right after the treatment, but within 15 minutes his oxygen sats were back down and he sounded horrible. After this Cooper was given an oral steroid, which is suppose to relax the muscles in the chest so that they are not contracting and making it harder for the lungs to do their job. Then the Dr. ordered a nose swab, to rule out the flu and RSV and a chest x-ray to see if anything else appeared in his chest that would be causing the breathing difficulties. The steroid is slow acting, so the Dr. kept Cooper in the ER to observe him while we waited on the results of the nose swab and chest x-ray. Well, the nose swab came back negative and the chest x-ray came back normal. So then the Dr. wanted to keep Cooper in the ER for two more hours (it was now 2am), then if Cooper's sats didn't improve (95% or better) he would be admitted to the peds unit to give him more steroids through an IV. At 3am Cooper became really cranky, Jeff became really cranky, and I became really cranky. When the respiratory therapist came in I told her that it was pointless to keep him in the ER for observation. They either needed to admit him so he could sleep in a crib, or send him home because there isn't anything the RT there could do that Jeff, as an RT as well, couldn't do at home. Once I pushed the issue, the Dr. came in and asked Jeff if he felt comfortable taking Cooper home and observing him there, and if he didn't improve or got worse to bring him back in. Of course Jeff was comfortable with that, so at 3:45am we were on our way home, with prescriptions for an oral steroid and nebulizer treatments every two hours.

Cooper went into our Dr. Tuesday morning. Our Dr. thinks Cooper must have been getting a cold, which aggravated his respiratory system, which brought on an asthma attack.

Cooper is doing much better now. He is still a little "raspy" but should be all better within a day or two.