Madie's first ER Trip

That is right Madie made her first ER trip last night. Ironically almost exactly 2 years ago by one week James made his first ER trip. I sure hope this isn't a trend. Madie decided to get croup and scare her Mom and Dad half to death in the middle (as in midnight) of the night. She woke up from her nap that afternoon with a sounding a little raspy but nothing too terrible. We had it checked out at the Doctors that afternoon while Jame was getting checked out for a very sore throat. Dr. said it wasn't anything major at this point but bring her in if it got worse, and worse it got.

I left Madie's and our door wide open because I didn't like the way she was sounding when we went to bed. Around 12:30 I hear her cough and then it sounded like she wasn't getting any air and laboring for every breath she took. Very scary, I don't recommended it. I loaded her up in the car seat got dressed and headed to the ER while Aaron called ahead and let them know I was coming. It took all my self control not to speed like crazy all the way to the hospital. The road it is on is loaded with cops and I really just didn't want to have to take the time and explain everything to them even though I am sure they would have been helpful.

When I got there they took her right into the ER and gave her some steroids to help open up her airway. Then they gave her a respiratory breathing treatment with a mask and had us wait. By now she still sounded raspy but wasn't laboring to breath.  We had to wait an hour to see how she reacted to the treatments. She was still raspy so we did another respiratory treatment, got chest x-rays, and then had to wait another hour. Poor Madie was so tired she managed to take a short 30 minute nap even in the glare of all the florescent lights until they came to take her vitals again. Then she woke up and was perky as could be. As you can see.  She didn't seem to mind that it was 3AM in the ER and she was sick.

Around 5 they decided to officially admit her for continued observation since she still had some 'strident'  left in her throat. We were able to catch about an hours worth of sleep until they had a room ready for us and the rest of the day was spent under observation. Madie slept pretty well in the afternoon once the excitement of all the fun people to chat at had worn off and the previous nights lack of sleep kicked in. When she wasn't sleeping she was charming the nurses and smiling, waving, and clapping for everyone who came in and out.  When there wasn't someone to entertain she was pretty content to cuddle with me in a chair and watch lots and lots of cartoon network.

They finally gave us the clear to come home around 5 with instructions to return if it started getting worse at all. I am hoping that tonight will be much less stressful with a lot more sleep involved and that she stays on the mend.