Friday, April 3, 2009

Hate that in between spot

I hate being in that in between spot of "do I take him in or not?" Grady's running around, happy, playing, laughing, as usual. He's breathing a little harder and faster and coughing more. His chest sounds good (I've listened to it all day with my stethoscope), he's not junky, he's not running a fever. He's just breathing harder and faster. I can see his ribs at all times (he's skinny) so the fact that I can see his ribs when he's breathing doesn't really tell me a lot. I talked to the ped. and he said if he's resting comfortably (he's in bed now) and acting fairly normal he'd give it until the second dose of steroids tomorrow and expect to see improvement. I don't want to NOT take him to the ER and have it get worse but knowing what the ER at Riley is like I don't want to take him and put him through that. He'd be exposed to more germs, he's not a major emergency so we'd have a LONG wait, they'd start an IV (or attempt to--he's a majorly hard stick). They would possibly start antibx but other than that we're doing all the rest here at home (inhaled steroids, albuterol nebs, oral steroids, antihistamine for allergies, motrin, etc) So, I'm feeling cruddy because I hate being in that spot where I have to decide to go or not. Obviously, if he were truly sick, I'd take him in a heartbeat. If he weren't sick at all we wouldn't even be in this situation. It's the middle of the road thing that sucks.
So, he's resting peacefully in his bed right now. Taylor's down for the night too. I'm heading to bed so I can get some rest in case the night gets rough again.

3 comments:

Lori said...

that has to be very hard to deal with. I hope he gets a good night sleep and the 2nd dose of meds helps him feel better

Michelle said...

I don't know if it helps, but they usually tell me day 3 on the steroids is usually when you see the major improvements. Hope you have a restful night.....

Finding Normal said...

I HATE that in between area. And you're right--the ER is a disaster zone. Addison spent 8 hours waiting to get a room the last 2 times she was there, and it wasn't even a question of whether or not she should be admitted, just morons who don't know how to manage their hospital. She finally got a bed at midnight, and you know that bed had been empty since at least 7!