Over the years we have learned that whenever Ethan gets sick with any sort of cold, flu, allergies, and in the case of last December, strep throat, it tends to almost always turn into something more serious, mainly it travels down to his lungs. We have dealt with numerous bouts of bronchitis and he has been hospitalized for pneumonia. When he had strep, his upper airway was starting to swell shut. So whenever he says "my throat hurts", or I notice he is sneezing and coughing or congested, I kick into high gear and grab my "mommy medic bag" as I call it. It contains a thermometer, my stethoscope, an oxygen sat monitor, various nebulized medications, various over the counter meds, and all the tubing for the neb machine. I also have my actual Medic bag which has my Oxygen bottle with various pediatric tubing in case things go south very quickly. We have recently been trying to prevent him from getting an infection in his lungs, so this time around as soon as he said his throat hurt, I went straight to nebulizing albuterol, giving oral prednisone, cold medicine, and our usual night time regimen of a humidifier (to prevent croup attacks... Yes at age 6, we still get them), and I aerosol some essential oils as well as rub them on his feet and chest (doterra Breathe and On Guard are our favorites around here).
All in all, it's honestly so stressful for me. I worry about him constantly, get little sleep while he is sick and end up having multiple panic attacks of my own that I have to struggle through. But I'm always so grateful for my EMS training, for the equipment I've acquired over time, and that in the emergent moments, I am able to stay calm. It's afterwards that I crash and burn. I'm looking forward to getting him into a pulmonologist and we pray we will find answers to his problems. It so hard to see him get so sick and struggle.
This is our newest mask for his nebulizer, it's a dragon, so the steam comes out the dragons nose. Yay for Amazon! And it allows him to just sit and breath rather than have to hold something to his mouth. Right now I'm debating whetherI should send him to school today. His cough sounds worse, but his lungs seem ok. He has missed so much school this year... Oh what is a mother to do? It's times like this that I wish I had the energy to homeschool.
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