Sick again...

Very early Tuesday morning, about 2 am, Jacob woke up coughing really bad and saying "owie!" He was holding his ears when he coughed and sounded really wheezy. I stayed in bed with him and around 3 am he sat up and repeated all this, then threw up from coughing so hard. LOVELY!

Chris got up with me and we turned the shower on to get the bathroom all steamy. We felt like he was having trouble breathing and wanted to loosen his chest up. It sounded kind of like asthma or croup to me. He was crying and saying "owie" and his voice was all hoarse. And he threw up again one time when he was coughing really bad. Poor guy!!!

So today Chris took him to the walk-in clinic. I think they thought it was asthma at first, then heard him coughing and thought it was asthmatic bronchitis. Basically we ended up with an antibiotic, a steroid syrup, and albuterol syrup.

I couldn't get him to take the antibiotic all day, though. I tried it watered down in all of his drinks and he spit them out. Violently. Definitely a vote AGAINST that taste.

Tonight I got to talk to his regular pediatrician on the phone (just lucked out and for the first time in four and a half years, he was the doctor on call when I needed one!). I got the impression that he was thinking it was croup and he said he doesn't think Jacob needs the antibiotic. He said he DOES need the steroid though and if he won't take the syrup we need to take him to the ER for a shot of it. We'd actually *love* the shot but not the ER visit.

Chris disagreed and thinks Jacob has bronchitis and needs the antibiotic. So we figured we'd see what we could get in him during the night tonight and how he is doing tomorrow. If we have to we'll bring him in to see his own doctor, although that would be really tough for Chris to handle with his work schedule tomorrow.

Of course the steriod syrup is extremely bitter and nasty tasting. It is disgusting. How the heck are we going to get this in him?? Chris drove down to the 24-hour-Walgreens and had them add some grape flavoring to it. We've mixed that with grape Pedialyte (super sweet) and grape juice and we're hoping that during the night he'll down it. We usually have better luck with getting him to take stuff during the night because he will drink his sippy cup and not pay quite as much attention to it.

So far (it's 10:45 pm now) he has woken up a number of times saying "owie" and coughing, and you can hear him wheezing while he sleeps. He is refusing to drink any juice so far ("No THANK YOU!"). Apparently Chris begging and me trying to sneak it in aren't working so far...