Monday, Monday

Well, we survived our first little Cohen scare. Yesterday evening we had just gotten Cohen out of the bath when he started wheezing really bad and breathing hard. We watched him for a few minutes and even put his oxygen on just in case. He stopped wheezing after a few minutes, but he continued to breathe harder and faster than normal. We called our pediatrician's office who connected us to Children's who has an advice nurse. We told her what had happened and she strongly suggested we take him in to the ER.

We debated back and forth for awhile and decided better safe than sorry. We continued to go back and forth on our way and even stopped the car at one point. He seemed to be fine at that point, but there was still this fear in the back of our minds. We were 80% sure he was fine, but that little "what if?" was still there. He had been coughing a little that morning so we thought maybe he was getting sick.

I had told Danny before we left that the only way I was taking him in was if one of us waited in the car with him until it was actually his turn to go back. I went and checked in at the front desk and explained that my son was waiting in the car because he was a preemie and we didn't want him picking anything up in the ER, she gave her best "ok, idiot" look like I was from another planet. However, I am glad we made that decision because the ER lobby was packed and as I sat and listened to all grown ups and kids coughing and hacking, I was glad he was out in the car.

Eventually, the triage nurse called us back and got some vital signs on him. His O2 sat was 99%, which in itself was reassuring. While waiting for a room we found a back nook to hide in and kept Cohen mostly covered. He was having the time of his life and didn't close his eyes for a second even though it was way past his bedtime. We took him back for a chest xray so they could see his lungs. The main two things I wanted out of taking him in were an O2 sat and a chest xray, both of which we got.

They put us in a room and before long the doctor came in. He said the radiologist had read the xray and that he thought Cohen had bronchiolitis (inflammation in the little air passages in the lungs). I asked him to be sure and look at Cohen's baseline xray that his pulmonologist had suggested we get. We were indeed thankful for this as he said when he compared the two they were mostly the same and that Cohen's baseline is still basically "crappy lungs". They also did an RSV swab which came back negative! The only time Cohen closed his peepers was the 20 minutes between the swab and waiting for the results. We headed home 4 hours later, relieved. We figured this would be the outcome, but we are still glad we took him in as it put our minds at ease and we are so thankful that it seems to be nothing. Please continue to keep us in your prayers as RSV season continues through next month! We are almost there.

{Get me out of here!}