Float like a butterfly, Bark like a seal

Last week we had our first big sickness scare that lead to a hospital visit. Eli and I were packing things up to visit Kelvey at her conference in Houston and were a few short hours away from leaving when Eli started getting a little weezy. He didn't have a cough, fever, or even a runny nose so I wasn't worried too much at first. Within the next 2 hours, Eli's weezing got much worse and soon it sounded like he was breathing through a kazoo. He was obviously uncomfortable and when he tried to cry the only sound he could make was that of a barking seal. I figured it may have been croup, but since I have never experienced it before and was worried about the rapid decline of Eli's voice, I started to worry that Eli may have been choking on something. I called our pediatrician's on-call nurse and she agreed that it may be croup but told me I should take him to the ER due to his distressed breathing.

Even though I wouldn't let Eli touch anything in the waiting room, he made the 2 hour wait bearable because he was still in good spirits and enjoyed watching everyone else. After being seen by 3 nurses and being told by each of them, "It's probably just croup," the doctor finally checked out Eli and determined that, in fact, it was croup, a virus that causes swelling of the vocal chords. He put Eli on a nebulizer, gave him some steroids to reduce the swelling, but also ordered some chest x-rays just to make sure he hadn't swallowed anything. This was the WORST part of the whole night. In order to hold him still for the x-rays, Eli had to be strapped into a contraption that made him look like a crying baby stuck in one of those vacuum tubes at the bank drive-thru. Thankfully the x-ray technician worked quickly and Eli calmed down once he was back in his papa's arms. After 6 hours at the hospital, Eli was sounding better and was cleared to return home. The next morning, Eli was back to his usual spritely self. Kelvey was a little upset that she was not around to help care for Eli so she caught an early flight home to be with him.

Since hospital visits aren't the best Kodak moments, here's a picture of Eli sitting in a laundry basket: