It's Not Summer Unless There is an ER Visit

Zane had a cough.  He's had a cough for some time, and he'd already had one doctor visit for it at the beginning of June.  Just a random virus, the doctor said, and sent Larry and Zane home.  In the back of my mind, I thought of the possibility of allergies.  This is central Texas, after all, and everybody and their dog has allergies here(I am not kidding--our dog has allergies, too!)  Then I filed that thought under 'random things to worry about at 3am' and got busy doing other things, like being gainfully employed. 

And then last week, Zane still had a cough. No behavior changes, talking normally, no wheezing, nothing different...except that I burned my hand on his forehead.  My boy had a fever.  I gave him ibuprofen and went to work.  That night, Zane still had a fever, which had not really responded to just ibuprofen. We added acetaminophen, alternating them, like we have been told to do.  Just a cough and a fever.  Probably some random virus, Larry and I said.  We would call the doctor in the morning. 

And we did.  The doctor's office did not seem to be worried about it.  We were even told to stop the fever reducers, just to see if Zane could fight the infection off.  Okay.  Our family went about our business, which included painting the downstairs. Zane acted normally, which meant whining about the stinky smell of paint and not being allowed to play on the Xbox.  Around five, we took Zane's temperature again, and it was higher than expected.  We called the doctor's office and were told to give our boy ibuprofen and to bring him in the next day.  That would have been fine, except that Zane's cough had become rather barky-sounding.  And his fever went up, not down. 

This situation is one of the times that I forget that I am an adult.  I wanted my dad, because my dad always knows what to do in emergencies.  My entire life, if there was an emergency, my dad just rushes out there and fixes it.  However, my dad happened to be on vacation, so it was up to me.  I looked at my son.

"We're going to the ER," I said. 

Zane freaked out, because I never say stuff like that.  I freaked out, because I really don't ever say stuff like that.  Larry didn't argue about anything except which ER.  I wanted the closest, he wanted the children's hospital.  We calmed Zane down and headed to the children's ER.  I let Larry do the talking, because that helps with his anxiety.  All Zane cared about was not having a strep test, which of course, he had to have. 

And a chest xray. 

And two breathing treatments. 

And steroids.

And TWO antibiotics.

My son had pneumonia.  Pneumonia? PNEUMONIA.  If the doctor hadn't shown us the xray and pointed it out, I would have said he was nuts.  It wasn't severe just yet. You could barely hear it with a stethoscope. But there it was.  We went home with two pages of prescriptions, and over the past week, I have learned a couple of things:

1. Children with ADHD on steroids are not going to sit quietly as they recover. They are going to bounce off the walls and act like they normally do; and

2. Parents of children with ADHD who are put on steroids should be given a prescription for Xanax, so they can recover from having an ADHD child on steroids.

I have also learned that I can do adulting, if I need to.  Yay me.