Many parenting truths may have fallen by the wayside, but a child's innate ability to make a liar of you is alive and well.
Leaving Mim's BBQ last night, Elissa coughed a couple of times in an ominously croupy kind of way. I confidently told Mim that Elissa gets traditional, 4 or 5 day long croup - annoying but "at least I won't have to go to the hospital tonight." I should have covered Elissa's ears.
We gave her Nurofen when we got home and she went off to sleep fine. At 3am, she woke up with stridor, but she calmed down and her stridor stopped about half an hour later. "Following her usual pattern", I said to myself, "I would have looked like an idiot if I'd taken her to the hospital half an hour ago." However, I stayed in her room, just to make sure. At 5:30am she woke again, this time very distressed, with pronounced tugging in her chest. "Ok," I said, "we should give her some Redipred now." Only BOTH bottles were out of date. And so she made a liar of me. We were home again by 8am, dosed with Dexamethosone and armed with both a second dose, and a knowledge of the correct dosage (0.3mg per kg, so I that I can find this next time it happens). Now I just need to check that the dex we have is NOT out of date.
Showing posts with label croup. Show all posts
Showing posts with label croup. Show all posts
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Monday, May 05, 2008
One of these things is not like the others
As I said, Elissa's been sick. About 10pm last night she woke again, and when I went up, I was stunned to hear stridor (that great Darth Vader breathing you get in croup) in her cries. She calmed down and went back to sleep, but I decided I'd best not have another glass of wine, since there was a good chance I'd be driving to the hospital at 3am.
2:50am she woke again with much worse stridor and I got dressed and carted her off to hospital. Now, the two boys would have been the objects of pity and rushed straight into resusc by the time I got them to hospital from the point she was at when she woke up. Not so much with Elissa. She was calm, smiling at the nurse, no sign of stridor at all. She coughed once or twice, enough to convince them I wasn't actually delusional, just ridiculously over reacting. She just got steadily better waiting an hour for the doctor to see her. I felt like an idiot. I apologised to the doctor that obviously this is the odd one out, since both my sons and myself get croup as spasmodic croup - very fast onset which rapidly gets worse. It looks like Elissa might get the traditional variety. There was a hint of this on the basis that she had actually been ill before the croup started (which is how normal croup presents) but that never happens with the boys.
The doctor, to her credit, was sympathetic and gave me a dose of steroids for her in case she needs it tonight. She also told me what the quantity of active ingredient is so that I can work out what dose to give her from Charlie's stash in case I need it more than 48hrs from when they drew out the dose. (It is highly likely it is the same dose, the doctor and I think there is only one formulation.)
So I agree with Mim, who needs sleep?
2:50am she woke again with much worse stridor and I got dressed and carted her off to hospital. Now, the two boys would have been the objects of pity and rushed straight into resusc by the time I got them to hospital from the point she was at when she woke up. Not so much with Elissa. She was calm, smiling at the nurse, no sign of stridor at all. She coughed once or twice, enough to convince them I wasn't actually delusional, just ridiculously over reacting. She just got steadily better waiting an hour for the doctor to see her. I felt like an idiot. I apologised to the doctor that obviously this is the odd one out, since both my sons and myself get croup as spasmodic croup - very fast onset which rapidly gets worse. It looks like Elissa might get the traditional variety. There was a hint of this on the basis that she had actually been ill before the croup started (which is how normal croup presents) but that never happens with the boys.
The doctor, to her credit, was sympathetic and gave me a dose of steroids for her in case she needs it tonight. She also told me what the quantity of active ingredient is so that I can work out what dose to give her from Charlie's stash in case I need it more than 48hrs from when they drew out the dose. (It is highly likely it is the same dose, the doctor and I think there is only one formulation.)
So I agree with Mim, who needs sleep?
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Ain't it always the way?
I got so annoyed by the school meeting last night, I kept Ben at home today. :)
At 2am he came in with a "nasty cough", otherwise known as croup. He wasn't so bad that he needed adrenaline, but despite having TWO steroids in the cupboard, I only had the dosage for Charlie, so off to the hospital we went. They gave him the Prednisone and we went down to paeds. We had a "dose 'em up, send 'em home" doctor, which, as it happens, suited me nicely. We were sent home about 4am. Ben was a little better, but not entirely well yet. As we walked out the door the thunderstorm started and I had to carry my >22kg 5 yr old to the car.
Of course, by the time we got home, the steroids had kicked in nicely and Ben was wide awake. I take back everything I have ever said about the insanity of Nick Jr running all night. I set him up on the lounge with his pillow and a blanket and he was happy for me to go to bed. I checked on him an hour later, since I wasn't really sleeping. By that stage he was really looking clearly better so I went back to sleep and really slept. The next time I saw daylight was 7:45am and by then Ben had made himself breakfast. I love independence!
Right now he is playing Crash Team Racing with his father looking very well indeed!
At 2am he came in with a "nasty cough", otherwise known as croup. He wasn't so bad that he needed adrenaline, but despite having TWO steroids in the cupboard, I only had the dosage for Charlie, so off to the hospital we went. They gave him the Prednisone and we went down to paeds. We had a "dose 'em up, send 'em home" doctor, which, as it happens, suited me nicely. We were sent home about 4am. Ben was a little better, but not entirely well yet. As we walked out the door the thunderstorm started and I had to carry my >22kg 5 yr old to the car.
Of course, by the time we got home, the steroids had kicked in nicely and Ben was wide awake. I take back everything I have ever said about the insanity of Nick Jr running all night. I set him up on the lounge with his pillow and a blanket and he was happy for me to go to bed. I checked on him an hour later, since I wasn't really sleeping. By that stage he was really looking clearly better so I went back to sleep and really slept. The next time I saw daylight was 7:45am and by then Ben had made himself breakfast. I love independence!
Right now he is playing Crash Team Racing with his father looking very well indeed!
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