Morning at the ER

We were out pretty late for MawMaw's birthday. After we left MawMaw's to come home, Kaitlynn started swallowing hard, choking and gagging in the car. It lasted about a minute, then was fine. She fell asleep in the car shortly after that. We got home, put her to bed and she slept for about an hour. She woke up screaming and crying, swallowing hard, gagging, choking and seemed to be having a hard time breathing. We called the pediatrician's exchange and a nurse called us back immediately. She heard Kaitlynn over the phone and said she sounded like she was very uncomfortable and we needed to bring her in for a chest x-ray. Her concern was she might have swallowed something that she wasn't supposed to or that got stuck in her throat. We got to the ER and were put in a room pretty quickly. A nurse checked her out and she seemed to be doing better. She said they were very busy and it would take awhile for a doctor to come in. Thankfully they had movies to keep her busy. We watched "Cinderella". We waited a little over an hour before the doctor was able to see us. At that point, Kaitlynn was ready to go home. The doctor checked her out and ordered a chest x-ray. The doctor said the x-ray wasn't the most clear cut case of croup she'd ever seen, but all of Kaitlynn's symptoms really seemed to point to croup. They gave her a dose of steroids and Motrin and gave us information on croup and what to look for, etc. The doctor said she was concerned that it might be turning into pneumonia because every time we asked Kaitlynn where she hurt, she would point to her lower back and tell us her back hurt. We are thankful that it wasn't more serious.

Kaitlynn's pediatrician called that afternoon to check on her. It was reassuring to talk to the pediatrician. She said croup could last up to 5 days.