Wednesday, December 17, 2014

A Case of the Croups

Exciting day here in Krueger Town. So Eleanor has had croup for a couple of days, and whatever, she's had it before and it's not a huge deal, I just keep making her tea that is, like, two parts honey. 


But this morning I got up to feed Geneva at 4:30 and then realized I hadn't heard Eleanor cough all night, and I ALWAYS hear when she coughs, so I'm lying there trying to talk myself out of going to check on her when she finally coughs, and I'm like, Ok good. But she doesn't STOP coughing, and by the time I get in there, she's panicking and can't catch her breath between coughs. 

So I wrap her up in a blanket and whisk her outside so the cold air can relieve some of the inflammation, and her coughing stops and her breathing slows down and we wave to Frosty in the front yard, who is wearing two of my hat pins to keep his hat on. 

Joel takes her in to the ER, and I lie in bed and wait and set myself time limits for how often I can text to see how they're doing. Eleanor gets some epinephrine and some steroids, and is kept under observation for a few hours. 


She comes home and we just have time to eat breakfast and get dressed (Eleanor laughed loud and hard at wearing her jammies and her boots at the same time, her jammies out of doors what a joke) and still make our date at the zoo. The zoo is free until April and it's not prohibitively cold right now. 


No one napped well, because despite the meds, Eleanor is still coughing, and the steroids have made her SQUIRRELLY. She is extra Eleanor - extra chipper, extra talky, extra wants you to watch while she does sommersaults around the room. We had another dose to give her before bed, so here's hoping for a good night's sleep for us all. 


2 comments:

Amanda said...

Oh dear, it is so scary when they cough like that! My Eleanor did that a couple of years ago - I think it was Croup Incident 4 out of 5 - and we panicked so hard we called 911 and ended up with, like, 6 emergency vehicles out in front of our house. The neighbors must have thought we were under siege. I'm very glad your Eleanor is feeling better and I hope you all sleep good and hard tonight!

dlgowan said...

"Extra Eleanor" doesn't sound like such a bad thing (says the woman who sleeps a solid 7 hours per night). I hope your sweet little girl is feeling better soon. That's so scary when they're really sick.