Asthmatic Bronchitis with a Side of Pneumonia

Chase had a bit of a cold this last week but on Thursday night it turned into an uncontrollable cough. I was up all night listening to him cough away. How is it that kids can sleep through most of their coughing but Mom can't? I kept him home from school on Friday and noticed that something was off. I couldn't exactly put my finger on it.

He couldn't stop coughing so I decided to call the doctor. I was hoping maybe some strong cough medicine could be prescribed to ease his coughing and alleviate his stomach soreness from all the coughing. On the way there he fell asleep in the car and I kept glancing at him. What was it that was nagging at me? Finally I realized it was his breathing that was bugging me. He was breathing really fast and it seemed like he couldn't take a deep breath. I also could hear some wheezing and rattling going on with each breath.

The doctor listened to him and asked him some questions. Chase told her it felt like his chest was being squeezed. I watched his little chest going up and down too quickly while they checked his oxygen levels. Turns out they were low. As she listened to his back I saw a look of concern cross her face. She then told me he had asthmatic bronchitis. What? He doesn't have asthma, I thought. Then she said she was pretty sure he had pneumonia in his right lung. He had only been sick for a few days, how did this happen? They gave him a breathing treatment and then she suggested I get a nebulizer to do treatments at home. I am so glad I followed my instincts and took him to the doctor.

Now Chase is taking antibiotics for his pneumonia, an anti-inflammatory medicine for his inflamed bronchial tubes and cough, and he has to do breathing treatments with an asthma medicine every four hours. What seemed like a little cold turned out to be a whole lot more.

Luckily the medicine is helping and he has slept well the last couple of nights. Fortunately I haven't had to do the breathing treatments every four hours at night. He's already sick of them. Every time I pull out the mask he complains. The cough medicine is disgusting so he gets to chase it down with a couple of spoonfuls of chocolate syrup. "Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down."

He'll probably have to stay at home for a little while until his breathing gets back to normal and the wheezing goes away. At night I wake up and go stand by his bedside and listen to him breath. I just hope that this doesn't turn into something worse or that he develops asthma problems after this. He's never had any problems like this before, Hunter is the one who has always had the nasty croup problem. I just wish the air was clearer so I didn't have to worry so much about what he was breathing in.

Here's hoping that he'll be back to school soon and running around with the kids outside. But for now I think he is enjoying hanging out at home with Mom and watching cartoons while his brother and sister are at school.