Good news, Bad news

The good news is that we now know that the emergency department at our local Children’s Hospital branch is awesome.

The bad news is that, well, we know that the emergency department at our local Children’s Hospital branch is awesome.

Remember me saying, like, two weeks ago that Piper’s yet to get sick?  Apparently I should have added a “knock on wood” statement to that.  She decided to get croup.  On a Friday night.  Late.  Oye.

So, when she started retracting, and acting like she wasn’t able to breath, we took her in.  Thankfully  her O2 levels remained high (higher than the average here in Denver even), but she has one nasty strider.  And a wheeze.  Poor kid. 

Thankfully they had a somewhat permanent room for us to stay in last night (including a couch and a rocking chair, along with a “real” crib for Piper) without us having to be admitted to the hospital. 

The treatment for the breathing problems?  Steroids (which were given orally, which I was thankful for, but I think they tasted bad enough she may have wished for an injection instead) and breathing treatments.  No biggie, right?

Ha. 

The breathing treatments were epinephrine.  At 1:00 in the morning.

My child didn’t go to sleep until 3:30.

She played with her pulse ox.

…and once she was able to breath again, she was ready to play (I assure you that neither Luke or I had this big a smile on OUR face…)

They took some x-rays of her windpipe to confirm croup and make sure we weren’t missing something else (you’d have thought we were asking her to sit in hot oil or something- yeah, it was that fun).  Then they put us in a nicer room.  That way Piper could play with her cords some more (notice the clock…)

I was trying to change her diaper when she realized that her toe was glowing.  So she played.

 

…and played…

…and played.

I finally ended up sleeping in the crib WITH her and she fell asleep for all of about an hour and a half at 3:30.

They let us go home a little bit ago.  They would have let us stay, but I figured if we stayed everything would be fine (of course, that same line of logic infers that if we went home, we’d have to go back…) 

So, we’re hoping that the strider starts getting better as the day goes on, and that she keeps being able to breath better than she was last night. 

…and that I can get a nap.  Please???