So croup’s fun, huh?
On a Monday recently, I was sitting at my desk at work, leisurely eating my breakfast while planning out my day. What projects I was going to work on, what I was going to get for lunch, and making plans with a co-worker to get coffee after our 8:30 team meeting. It was during that 8:30 meeting that I saw daycare’s number pop up on my phone.
Which is how I found myself in an exam room at our pediatrician’s office a few hours later, holding a sobbing toddler who was barking like a seal and begging “all done! ALL DONE!” Poor thing coughed every time he got upset, and cried every time he coughed, and it was a horrible cycle filled with lots of worrying noises no parents wants to hear come from their child. Stridor is a very polite way to describe a horrible, horrible sound.
It was all very odd considering he’d gone to bed completely fine the night before. He’d woken up upset and a little sick, but we were thinking he had a cold. The croup signs came a few hours later and were intense. Because of how quickly and strongly they came on, our doctor decided to treat him aggressively, which was a lifesaver. Within hours we could see him getting better.
The “seal cough” that the doctor said she could hear down the hall before she even came in the room, and was so textbook she wished they’d had a med student that day to hear it, had mostly disappeared by bedtime. So the long night we were prepared for with steam showers and trips outside didn’t actually materialize. THANKFULLY.
The sad toddler during the day was enough. E spent two days sobbing and I spent two days not being able to calm him down.
It was horrible, but we were probably due. KNOCK ON ALL THE WOOD, but we’ve had pretty healthy kids lately. I’m fully aware that October is coming, though, and that tends to be a “sick month.” Please just don’t give us all the stomach flu on the same day? Please?
