Long Night

Yesterday Zak has a runny nose and hoarse voice, but we didn't think much of it. Then last night he started to cough a little, but nothing too bad or uncommon for him. Around 11:30pm I heard him coughing really bad and it was a cough that I have never heard before. I went into his room and he was in a major coughing fit and was having trouble breathing. Ben and I immediately gave him a breathing treatment with the nebulizer which helped him a good amount. At that point he was still coughing really bad and just didn't feel good at all. Ben and I decided to let him sleep with us since we knew he was having breathing issues. Needless to say, it was a very long night!

This morning Rich came and picked up Ryder for a bit so I could take Zak to the pediatrician. They did a rapid flu test which came back negative. Then she listened to his lungs for a while. In the end she diagnosed him as having croup and pneumonia. She said the croup is viral, but the pneumonia had a 50/50 chance of being viral (RSV) or bacterial. So she prescribed him antibiotics for the pneumonia and an oral steroid to help with the swelling in his airway & lungs which should help with his breathing. Rich is on his way to bring Ryder back home and Ben is going to pick up Zak's medications on his way home from work. Our goal now is to try and keep everybody else in the house healthy! If these last 2 months are any sign of how our winter is going to be then I am not looking forward to it. Zak has had breathing issues twice and the flu already. I know he has a lack of immune system, but come on....

Here is Zak with his best friend during the winter....

On a side note, Ben is a little disappointed. He was offered a ticket (transportation, food, everything) to go see the Army vs Navy football game tomorrow, but I already had plans for the evening so he isn't going to be able to go. All of the people who we would normally ask to watch the boys are either going to the football game or going to be with me at the basket bingo I am going to tomorrow evening. I do feel bad because he has never been to a football game, but I also have had these plans for a week or so now. Maybe another time in the next 25 years he will have another chance to go to a football game...he did tell me if it had been a chance to go see the Redskins play I would have been out of luck and stuck at home with the boys!