Ready to Fly the Croup

It's a farm full of yuck-germs around here this week. It started out with a very unwelcome swine and is ending with a barrel of antsy monkeys trying to fly the croup! Lawson got sick all at once on Monday night and by Tuesday was in urgent care, having not had a drop to drink in nearly 24 hours and a fever of 103.3. They didn't test him and didn't seem worried but said that he had the swine flu and should take an anti-viral. So, home again, home again, jiggity jig, with Rx in hand we went. He had a cocktail of the anti-viral, Motrin, gelsemium semp. 30 and oscillococcinum and seemed to get better almost immediately. Tuesday was spent running around playing and coughing and saying "no!" as much as always. The pig seemed to be on it's way off the farm and we were glad!

Eight o'clock rolled around and he went to sleep seeming almost back to normal. Well, two hours later, I found a very different boy in his bed. A barking seal had joined us at the farm and Lawson was not pleased. I didn't like the sound of his cough and wasn't about to risk letting him go all night for this to develop into pneumonia or bronchitis. Off we went to the E.R. to have him checked out. By the time we arrived, his cough was markedly better and had me feeling a little on the silly side for having brought him in. I stuck to my guns though and in we marched. Lawson rode in his stroller and Naomi hung out in my favorite baby carrier, the Balboa Baby. The nurses were laughing that I had babies everywhere, that some people accessorize with jewelry and I accessorized with babies. This had us all laughing, which was nice since Lawson was feeling more than a little uneasy with his "dinosaur mask" on to keep from spreading his germs. The nurse checked him out and thought he sounded fine, then the respiratory specialist checked him over and said the same thing. Then, a seasoned and sassy doctor walked in to give him the once-over before they sent us home. Lawson started crying the second he came in because he knew he was about to be prodded and poked again. Well, the doctor heard him inhale once and said, "he has croup." Which made me feel a little less like an overbearing worry-wart of a mom for bringing him into the E.R. Apparently, the cold and damp air outside on the way to the hospital was a therapy of sorts. The gave him some meds to take down the swelling in his esophagus and we were on our way with a much happier boy.

So, we're not sure if he ever had the swine flu or not now. He may have been misdiagnosed in the first place, or he could have had it and it turned into croup. I'm kind of hoping we got swine flu out of the way and have immunity now! This is starting to sound a bit like Survivor: Sick Farm. Luckily, the barking seal and pig have been voted off the farm and hopefully won't be coming back for the rest of us (though my mom may very well have stolen that barking seal off the farm for herself.) In the mean time, I'm going a little stir-crazy and wish I could fly the croup for a while! Until then, we've got elephant trains and walking lady bugs to keep us company as the rest of the sanitized toys hide out until the coast is clear! And when it is, I'm jumping on that train to chug-a-chug-a-choo-choo my way off the farm to start in on some Holiday shopping!!!