The Rice Barbarian Goes to the Hospital Again

The Rice Barbarian and I went to the hospital last night. This time, it was not asthma, but croup. But boy, did it seem like asthma. Except that after the 10 minute drive to the hospital, she was basically fine. We gave her albuterol using the nebulizer before leaving for the hospital. I figured it was that.

Feel like crap. That's what going to bed at 3am after fighting all the day does to one, I suppose.

Rice Barbarian, more details

As my post last night was fairly disoriented and uniformative, filling in from the spam thread.

Last night The Rice Barbarian woke up abotu 11:00 barking-seal coughing and wheezing and her chest was retracting.

As soon as we got the nebulizer going, she was much, much improved. Most importantly, her chest stopped collapsing. But the millisecond I took the mask away when the dose was done, she immediately had the terrible cough, her chest was retracting again, and in between she was wheezing again.

So, I throw in clothes, Husband throws toys and books in a bag, and 8 minutes or so later, we are on the road, with a little pajama clad girl in her winter coat and hat zooming to the hospital.

On the trip to the hospital, she was so quiet I thought she had gone to sleep.

Then we got there and she obligingly gave a few seal coughs, but mostly she seemed pretty normal. When the triage nurse tested her, blood oxygen was 97%. So we sat around for about an hour waiting for a room to clear up, go admitted to a non-room where we were for about another 15 minutes, then we spent about an hour being seen by the doc and getting our oral steroids then waiting to be discharged. The Rice Barbarian started the nebulizer around 11:10. We got home about 2:30. She had a big late night snack and visit with her Daddy, then in bed again a little before three.

The diagnosis was croup, which can aggravate asthma, but for which teh treatment is to walk aroudn outside for about 20 or 30 minutes.

I need to go out and get her meds for tonight and tomorrow. Oral steroids before bed both nights to hopefully prevent her waking up coughing again in the middle of the night. But assuming all goes well, she will be back at school tomorrow. SHe could go today, except for the terrible night's "sleep."

Comparing last night to the asthma trip...

This time was much more upsetting to her than the first time, for some reason. The first time, she hardly seemed to care, even though she was clearly having a frightening medical event. She was happy, laughing, even running around, at the same time her chest was retracting and she was breathing like a bellows - well the running around was after some albuterol, but while we were getting ready to go, she was acting like it was just any other day.

Of course, that time, it happened around her usual wake up time. This one was in the middle of the night. Maybe the break in sleep cycle was somehow worse. Or maybe the croup, which is a swelling and inflamation in the throat, hurt when she coughed? Also, her chest WAS retracting, which I have been told is like getting punched in the chest. Though why it didn't bother her that first time is just hard to understand.

Anyway, she was mostly annoyed at the hospital that I wasn't letting her have a soda (I bought a bottle only to be told she shouldn't drink, but of course, then she KNEW it was there and was mad at me the rest of the night for not letting her have some) and was restless about having to stay in one place so long.

Ah. The life of the toddler.