the week from hell.

A sign on the classroom door said a case of strep throat was confirmed. “Great”, I thought. “This is all we need”. Noah had been coughing for a day or two, and I wasn’t taking any chances. We went to the doctor Friday afternoon (14th) and had him checked out. No fever. No strep. No RSV. He just had a cold with a cough. We could handle that.

By Saturday (15th), his cough had become more persistent, and a tad barky. We called the on-call doc, and he prescribed steroids for his throat. Still no big deal. Sunday, he was on an up-swing, and we thought the worst was behind us.

Noah went to school Monday (17th), since he didn’t have a fever. He screamed the whole way. The evening report was that he was a tad whiny, but again, no fever. He screamed the whole way home. He started refusing food. We decided to keep him home Tuesday (18th), just to recover.

By the next morning, he was lethargic and just not looking right. That morning, he was coughing up a storm, and throwing up what food we could get in him. His 11am appointment couldn’t come fast enough.

Alex, also sick with bronchitis and a sinus and ear infection, stayed home with him and took him to his appointment. I left work early so I could be with them. I got to the doctor’s office about 12:30, and they were still there. As I walked in, he was slumped in Alex’s arms, about to get his first breathing treatment.

102 fever, and it was confirmed RSV.

They kept us about 2-1/2 hours, and in that time, the fever escalated, and he was considered in respiratory distress. The hospital—initially a remote possibiity—was inevitable. Do not pass go, do not collect your shit... Just grab your baby and run.

We got checked in, and had the most lovely nurse (shout out, Nancy!) help get us settled. Alex and I decided to take turns with procedural things. Alex was up first, and went with our son to get his IV put in. They couldn’t get it in the first or even second try, so they moved on to the other hand, and SUCCESS! Noah was a trooper. I got the “easier” task of X-Rays. Noah loved sitting with mommy in the wheelchair as we went from one side of the hospital to the other. It was supposed to be an easy thing: mommy holds baby while they take a picture. He was so scared, they had to ask me to step behind the glass as two people held him in place. Yeah. Joy.

That evening was a flurry of blood drawings, nurses flying toward him, breathing treatments and pulse/ox beeps. Luckily, mom and dad Bare came up to help, and Alex was sent home to rest.

Noah’s fever escalated to almost 104, and the nurse had to come give him a sponge bath to bring it down. THIS WAS BY FAR THE WORST THING EVER.

As his fever broke, mom and dad Bare left. Noah slept fitfully for a bit between treatments, but I couldn’t sleep at all. Around 1am, his oxygen levels started to dip, and I panicked. We were told if Noah was administered oxygen, it’d be an automatic 24 hours tacked on to our stay. Don’t get me wrong, if he NEEDED it, we’d do it in a heartbeat, but the respiratory therapist mentioned that it was localized congestion blocking part of his airway, and a simple suction would do the trick.

The nurse, on the other hand, wanted to do oxygen and be done with it. I ended up calling Alex to help me stave off the oxgyen-hungry lass, and he slept with Noah propped up on him for a few hours, affording me my first and only two hours of sleep that day (in the crib).

Wednesday (19th), we were so hopeful that we’d be released, but we were quickly faced with another day in room 358. His high fever and X-Ray (pneumonia in his LLL, or lower left lung) was our undoing. We also had some bloodwork mishaps that were torturous to watch your son go through. Needles suck. Drawn out blood extraction sucks more.

(at left: Noah hiding from the nurse) As the day progressed, he started to perk up. I sent Alex home for some rest, and I enjoyed some alone time with Noah. Mimi (mom Bare) came by to relieve me, and I enjoyed two hours of naptime! Mmmm...

That night, Noah was bouncing off the walls. Being couped up for a few days will do that to you, I guess!


(above: Noah walking down the hall in his mask) We brought a sleeping bag, and Alex ended up sleeping on the floor, with me in the chair. Ugh. Restless night #2. We both got a few more hours of sleep, but definitely not a full night’s worth.

By Thursday (20th), we were all clamoring for the doctor. Thankfully, we were released by 11, and home soon after.

Today, we’re dealing with a pH imbalance, due to the medication, which has provided a gnarly diaper rash. Hopefully once the round of medicine is complete, he’ll be back to normal. Even still, it’s a small price to pay for him to be on the road to recovery, and for us all to be in our own beds!

Parents, please, an epidemic of RSV is going around. Monitor your child. If they start the barky cough, bring them in. Get them tested for RSV. And if they have a cold, please know it CAN GET WORSE. The doctors were telling us that this year’s RSV is behaving very differently from previous strains. It’s harder to predict, and taking longer for kids to get over. Just be aware of what’s going on with your little one.

Even though it was the worst few days of my life, I am SO grateful we were sent to the hospital. We all had a mutual goal of getting Noah better, plus, we wouldn’t have found the pneumonia otherwise. I can’t imagine what would have happened had we waited it out.

Now, my stories about insurance companies aren’t as nice, but that’s for another day.