Tuesday, August 28, 2007

They X-Rayed His Puppy, at Least

The other morning when we got to the doctor to have our son examined for a particularly bad case of bronchitis that he had developed following a cold, they gave him a shot of epinephren and called an ambulance, which took him to the hospital for the next three days.

Parents! Do yourselves a favor and read the following two links!

How to Recognize an Asthma Attack
Asthma Basics

He's doing fine now; in fact, dosed four times daily with steroids and albuterol, he's ramped up a little more than usual and helped me dig a shallow twenty-foot drainage ditch in the yard today. We have been serving up our self-castigation with a rich, blamery sauce. But some dark nights of the soul and the support of a lot of people (both with and without asthma, with and without kids) have talked us down from our guilt. And he forgave us as soon as we let him ride in an ambulance.

Now the baby has a fever. At least she waited.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Must comment.

My daughter was 2 and already diagnosed with asthma. I still waited until The Smurfs cartoon was over before driving her to her Dr.'s office where she was immediately whisked off by ambulance to the ER where she was treated in a pediatric ICU for almost 10 days.

And, I'm an advanced life support Paramedic.

Hope that makes you feel a little better.

Amy Plum said...

Holy cow, Bill! How scary. Do either you or Claudia have asthma? I wouldn't have known how to spot it either. Hope both son and daughter are doing better.

Bill Braine said...

Kim, oddly that does make me feel a little better. Thanks. And they're both ok; the baby has/had something very like roseola—three days of high fever then a rash. Rash is subsiding.

We're planning to pack a lot of relaxin' into the next two days, by force if necessary.