More spring sick

After you give your sick little boy a bath & snuggle up with him still naked in his towel & he falls asleep for the first time in 18 hours (dang cough!), is not the time to stop & think about when was the last time he peed, or if he had enough to drink today. Its asking for trouble.... or at least a lap full of pee. Accidents happen. 

Hayden caught some respiratory bug.  And he is so stinking prone to this upper airway swelling, croup, crap that it drives me bonkers.  Snuggling with him for 24 hours while he barks & coughs has given me a pounding headache.  I can't imagine how he feels.

He was awake from about 2am this morning, until 7pm tonight.  His cough kept him awake.  Luckily the croup business didn't set in until about 2am, so we avoided the ER, but I got pretty concerned around 5am & wasn't sure we'd make it to sun up.  I really think had it started at 11pm, like it usually does, we'd of been in the ER at 3.  What is it about sun up that makes croup "magically go away"??  Or get better at least.  Why is it such a nighttime disease process?  He gets that inspiratory stridor so badly, which is what makes me worry.  Its not his croup cough that makes me worry about him, its the stridor.  A few trips outside, a hot steamy shower & more or less an hourly normal saline nebulizer treatment & we made it through the night. 

Morning came.  Still the barky cough & an occasional stridor with activity, but not at rest like overnight.  I called the pediatrician in the morning, I love that I can call my pediatrician & they just trust me & trust my judgement on lots of things.  They called us in a 2 day course of steroids for him.  So we got those started this afternoon & if he's not better by Saturday, we'll go see them. 

Then... this evening, we discovered he was covered head to toe in a rash.  More or less looked like a heat rash, mostly pink, but some clusters that looked hive-allergy-ish.  And once his clothes were off, he was itching it.  So at the suggestion of the 24 hour pediatrician hotline, he had a cool bath with baking soda in it.  And a dose of Benadryl, which we will give ever 6 hours for a while.  Maybe that's why he finally fell asleep this evening?  Steroids, Motrin, Benadryl, Claritin & a bath would put me to sleep!  So who knows.  Is the rash from the respiratory virus?  Or from the low grade fever he has?  Or is this not a virus & its an allergic reaction?  The rash cleared up pretty well after the bath & Benadryl.  I know he has had some horrible itchy, watery eyes from allergies this spring.  But he's had a 100.8 ish fever today, so its got to be more than allergies.  We tried to think of anything new he has eaten or drank & the only thing we could think of was a vanilla milk shake from Burger King.  Given that he has eaten ice cream before & soft serve & blizzards I can't imagine a shake would be an issue.  But I think I'll keep Benadryl in hand next time he has one, just incase. 

Whatever it is, I know he doesn't feel super.  He's not one to need to be held all the time & we've passed him around all evening.  He is drinking & peeing, but not eating today.  Says his ears don't hurt.  His throat doesn't hurt (because I know strep has gone around & it can cause a rash in kids).

I'll be staying home sick with them tomorrow.  My turn.  Jeff stayed home Monday at the lingering fever end of Logan's flu. 

Hopefully tomorrow, no body pees on me.

At least it was warm outside today.