Croup De'Ville

We found out tonight that Bo has Croup*.

He's had a sore throat for a few days but nothing crazy. Then this morning he started complaining about it more and gradually started wheezing and making hoarse coughing sounds (which I now know is called "barking"). By the time he woke up from his afternoon nap, he sounded horrible, looked miserable, and was running a high fever.

I called our babysitter to come watch Sam and I took Bo to Urgent Care. When we got there his fever was 103 and he sounded even worse. The doctor diagnosed him immediately with Croup just by listening to his labored breathing and barking (he checked his lungs and ears but they were clear).

Said his first concern was to get Bo's fever down. We (I held him down while the doctor forced his mouth open) tried giving him some Tylenol and Motrin but he immediately puked it up all over us. Yummy.

On to plan B.

A Tylenol suppository (which Bo hated - I don't blame him) followed by a steroid shot in each thigh (hated that too) (normally would be given orally but due to the puking he had to get the shots), and a 15 minute breathing treatment. The nurses wrapped him up in a sheet like a burrito to keep his arms trapped down, and placed a dragon mask over his nose and mouth. He resisted for only a few seconds before falling asleep on my lap.

We then had to stick around for a couple of hours to make sure he didn't have a worse relapse after the breathing treatment wore off (which he didn't. Thank God). It was a long 2 hours but Bo was really good, despite the nurses giving him a coloring book with no crayons. What's up with that, Mr Supply Guy?

But we're home and he's in bed now, asleep. The poor guy has had a traumatic afternoon. I just hope the night is much less eventful. I'll keep you posted.

*Croup - Infection, inflammation and swelling of the larynx and surrounding tissue. This causes labored breathing and a characteristic "barking" noise with each inhalation or cough. Caused by contagious viral infection.