Pneumonia

Well, Zachary gave Mommy and Daddy quite a scare at the beginning of the month. On Tuesday, March 3rd, I (Mommy) went to Urgent Care because I could hardly get out of bed. I was diagnosed with strep. Scared to death that I had been breast feeding my 4 month old, I stayed away from him for 24 hours (thanks to mom). By Friday, I noticed that both kids were getting a cold. On Saturday both kids had a cough, but Zachary's was much worse than Kylie's. On Sunday, it was still terrible.

In the evening I called the pediatrician's office, and the nurse practitioner said that it sounded like a common cold, and as long as he was eating, peeing and pooping normal, he was probably fine. On Monday the kid just seemed to be worse, and by Tuesday he had a fever. I took him to the doctor and saw the nurse practitioner (there is a pattern here). She took a listen to his chest and diagnosed him with bronchiolitis (farther down the bronchial than bronchitis). She sent us home with a breathing machine and meds to do every 4 hours. She said to expect him to sound worse in the next 24 hours before he got better. Frankly, Tuesday he seemed fine after going to the doc. On Wednesday he started in with a fever again. I called and spoke to the doctor, and she said that the fever was OK and to give him Tylenol. If his breathing changed, take him to the hospital. The Tylenol kicked the fever and Zachary seemed in pretty good spirits, still eating and sleeping just fine. On Thursday (over 24 hours on the breathing machine) he didn't seem any better. He had a low grade fever, and I gave him more Tylenol. I put him to bed, and when Mike came home at 1 am, he woke me up to tell me that he could hear Zachary breathing downstairs. He decided to go get him to have him sleep with us where we could listen to him breathe. The next thing I hear is Mike's panicked voice telling me that Zachary had a white film around his mouth and was breathing deep. Off to the emergency room! Good thing I am married to a cop...I'm sure we flew.

The ER doc diagnosed Zachary with pneumonia and scared us to death by contemplating transferring him to a PICU. The on site pediatrician decided to take the case, and we stayed for 3 days at the hospital.

Poor Zachary...he was the classic case of Pavlov's conditioning. By day 2, every time anyone walked in with a stethoscope, he started crying. Thankfully, he is much better now. He has a Well Baby doctor appointment this Thursday to follow up.