I Really Need to SHUT MY MOUTH!

Here I was saying last week that Zach was improving and I was hoping we were almost past all the sicky stuff. Not so! Wednesday Zach's nose started running yet again and he was starting to cough. By Friday night he had a fever that was reaching 104.3 at midnight Friday night/Saturday morning I was giving him a lukewarm bath to try and sooth him...and the cough was settling in his chest. After a pretty well sleepless night, I took him in to see a doctor Saturday morning. They said it was just a virus...lungs,ears, nose all looked clear. A slight wheezing, but nothing that seemed to be putting him in distress. Go home, make him as comfortable as possible...use Tylenol and if you must give him something try Delysm for the cough (but it won't do anything...at least that is what they said). SO back at home with more Tylenol and some of the cough medicine (hey it is worth a try)....his fever continues to stick around...very rarely dropping below 100...and often up in the 102 range. His coughing continues to get worse, but his chest isn't being sucked in, so not in the distress. Well, last night the fever got up to 103.9 plus he is barely eating or drinking and not many wet diapers...so I called the doctor again this morning to take him in again. Good thing I did! He is wheezing...in both lungs in fact...his dr says it is probably RSV, but she is really concerned with how high the temp has gone (usually with RSV doesn't go much above 102)...so she wonders if it could be his ears....first one clear....second one (his right) BINGO! Poor guys has a pretty good ear infection (which would explain why he was swallowing crazy last night). She said that could be causing the higher temperature, but it could also be pneumonia. She thinks it probably isn't since both lungs are wheezing equally, but would I like to take him over for x-rays....concern is if it isn't at the point we expose him to radiation and it might turn into pneumonia later which would mean more x-rays at that point (and more than 27 x-rays in a lifetime can dramatically increase your chances of cancer they are finding). But MAN I hate making those kinds of decisions! SO....we discuss it...decide to give him an Albuterol treatment with the nebulizer there in the office and see if that changes anything. 3 minutes later with one VERY angry little guy....hardly any change with the wheezing...which isn't a real good sign...but the dr is still leaning towards it being the ear infection causing the high fever. SO we discuss some more...and decide to try him on some Amoxicillin and see if that helps bring the fever down by getting rid of the ear infection. Also, change from Tylenol to Motrin to help with the soreness that is probably there from the wheezing. I also have the option of using some of Drew's Albuterol with the chamber to give it to Zach and see if that does end up helping to reduce the wheezing (worth a try since she says it wouldn't hurt him and we already have it). If fever stays up and wheezing continues as is or gets worse, I just call and she will get us in for a chest x-ray. Man I am really praying this stuff does the trick and I didn't make a bad choice that I will later regret! Poor guy sure is having a rough start to 2008! :(

And the other son....:) Besides the fact that it looks like he is coming down with the same stuff Zach has (hard to avoid with Zach coughing so much and sharing those lovely germs), we took him to see a counselor yesterday afternoon. She says that it isn't a behavior issue at this point, but rather a VERY smart child that we just have to teach how to do what we say. This means that we have to practice the things he struggles with obeying. In her office she used the bedtime struggles to demonstrate what she was meaning. She would let him really get into the toys he was playing with in the office, then she would tell him it was time to practice getting ready for bed. The first time she said that he got a real confused look on his face and looked at us...very commical. :) So she would take him by the had and explain that now they are walking to the bathroom and now that they were in the bathroom he needed to brush his teeth. He then had to brush his teeth until she told him he could stop and could go back to playing. Well, we are to do this numerous times through out the day so it just becomes a habit for him to just do what we are telling him. Worth a try...but I can see Drew thinking it is all fun and games for awhile and then just decide not to do it after awhile. She said we also need to try and get the school to try doing this sort of pracitce there too....not sure how well THAT will go over with them :) I haven't had time to do the "practice" yesterday because of late naps (do to the appointment) and then having to clean the house for company John had coming over for the MU vs KU basketball game last night...and then the run to the dr today....but hopefully I can do it this afternoon. Here's hoping I am wrong and this works! :)

Whew....I think I will now try to go catch a couple winks while the boys are napping (since I haven't gotten much more than a couple of hours the past few nights). I will share a quick picture of Drew out playing in the 2 or so inches of snow we had last Thursday night/Friday morning...(picture of him trying to throw snow at me...if you looks close you can see it mid-air in front of his coat)