Croup

We had our first late-night trip to the emergency room. Nathan woke up about 1 am one morning crying hysterically and coughing like a seal (meaning his cough sounded like the bark of a seal). As I was trying to get him to calm down, it became clear that he was having difficulty breathing. We bundled him up and raced to the emergency room at Baptist East. I walked in and at the main ER window in front of us was a woman in hand-cuffs being escorted by a female police officer. The woman was obviously intoxicated and was doing everything she could to stall (I guess she wanted to delay going to jail). I had an overwhelming urge to push her out of the way, couldn't she see that I had a baby who couldn't breathe??? Finally the nurse in charge told her to move and took us right in. Nathan had calmed down significantly and was a real trooper as the nurses and a doctor examined him and gave him a cool-mist breathing treatment. After a chest and upper airway X-ray, he was diagnosed with Croup. This is a viral infection that causes inflammation of the upper airway and vocal chords in young children. We were sent home with steriods for the inflammation and instructions on what to do if he has another attack. It was quite a scary night.