crazy panic mom mode

today was the first time i entered the 'crazy panicked mom' mode! here's how the day went.

6am - graham wakes up and is a little congested, but other than that...normal.

7am - get the dude changed for school. noticed he's got some good 'candles' going, so i suction out his nose.

8am - drop off at school and he's as happy as can be playing in the padded ring thing they have in his room.

12:50pm - i get a call from one of the teachers at school: "we wanted to call to see if you were aware of graham's congestion." me: "yes. he was somewhat stuffed up this morning, why?" school: "well it's gotten pretty bad, to the point where he can't fall asleep. and then when he does fall asleep he seems to be having a hard time breathing. we think you might want to come pick him up and take him to the emergency room."

FREAK OUT in 5.....4.....3....2.....

i try to remain as calm as possible and tell them we didn't see that at all last night or this morning and that i would get there as soon as possible.

12:55pm - call dr's and get an appointment ASAP.

1:25pm - i get to school and he indeed is breathing REALLY fast and hard. all the teachers were worried. never a good sign!

1:35pm - worst car ride yet with the dude. he was crying the whole way there, but i think that was the only way he was able to breath. he would start coughing and i think it hurt him, so he would cry more and the cycle continued.

1:40pm - probably about 5 seconds away from parking in the drs office parking lot is when the real crazy panicked mom came out! i had been watching the dude in the backseat mirror the entire way to the doctors, thinking he may be getting worse. then at 1:40, with the drs office building in sight, he all of a sudden turns beet red and stops breathing!! FREAK OUT! then, not 2 seconds later (not to be graphic, but...) he projectile vomits what looks to be everything in his little tummy. and this doesn't happen once, but twice! FREAK OUT! finally, what seemed to be 100 miles away (but was only about 200 feet) i get to a parking spot. i honestly don't know how i didn't hit someone over those 200 feet. i was freaking out so bad i was probably going 20 miles an hour through the parking lot. oops, but can you blame me?! i was crazy panicked mom! i JUMP out of the car and sprint to the other side. i completely ignore all the vomit that is all over the poor dude and grab him out of his car seat. amazingly i remembered to grab my purse and i ran into the front door.

"hi, i have an appointment at 1:50, but someone needs to help me now!"

1:41pm - the nurse takes me back to a room and they immediately start asking me all sorts of questions. i knew something was wrong with the dude since he was, what i call, a limp noodle. he was just laying there in my arms and there was nothing i could do for him. we undress him, since he's disgustingly covered in his own vomit and the nurses notice that his breathing is retracted. another FREAK OUT!

1:50pm - the nurse walks over to the room across the hall: "excuse me dr. bill. i hate to interrupt, but you really need to come check this little guy out." FREAK OUT!

1:55pm - dr. bill: "oh my goodness graham. what are you doing to your poor mom?!" he takes a quick look and immediately has the nurses get a neb treatment set up for him. he'll be back in 10mins.

2:20pm - neb treatment is done, dr bill takes another look at him and the dude is back to normal!!!

2:35pm - walk out of the with a diaper clad baby (since i was not putting those clothes back on him) and drive home.

O-M-G!!!!

i was so glad to be home and able to just cuddle with the little dude. he snoozed on me for a good hour and a half and then we ventured out to get his medicine.

he's on albuterol neb treatments every 4-6 hours, steriod neb treatments twice a day (we can mix it with the albuterol thankfully!) and prednisone orally twice a day. we did our first combined treatment at 630 and it really seemed to help. thankfully the little guy ate his dinner with no problem, took his bottle at the regular time and has been snoozing in his crib since about 745 or so. we're not sure if we're going to scoop him up and let him sleep with us so we can hear him better, or if we'll just turn the monitor on REALLY loud, so we can hear everything.

i think he's on the mend and hopefully we'll get a cleaner bill of health when we go for our follow-up visit on saturday morning. i'll keep everyone posted!