Sick Kid

Brendan's week-old cold has really gotten worse. This morning at 5am, he woke up and woke us up. He came to bed with us and his breathing was so raspy that we never went back to sleep. We decided that we should go ahead and take him to the doctor, so I took off work and we did just that. We (fortunately) got a 10:10 appointment with our very busy doctor and he got checked out. It turns out the he has The Croup.

Yikes!!! What the heck is that???? Well, WikiPedia says this and Medline says this.

That's actually not as bad as it sounds. We got a prescription to treat the symptoms, but our doctor said unequivocally "I do not treat the croup. It's a virus, and everybody knows that there are no cures for viruses. I do treat the symptoms, though." He said to get a vaporizer, which we have, and to give him an oral steroid (the prescription).


Our vaporizer is kinda,
sorta like this...but different.

This is one of the reasons that I just love listening to this doctor (Christopher Gulde, of Children First Pediatrics, who I highly recommend) -- Here's what he told us about the prescription. "Let me give you a little advice here: don't skimp on this one and get the generic. Get the name brand because it tastes good. I've tried the generic and it tastes terrible. You're gonna have enough trouble getting it down him, at least you should get the good tasting one to make it a little easier. The generic tastes like...dirt. It tastes like dirt spiked with...DIRT! Trust me!" LOL LOL I just love this guy! He could be Alton Brown's twin almost. Same personality and looks and everything.

Anyway, so we're waiting on the prescription, and all will (hopefully) be well. Plus I got a day off using some of my copious bank of sick leave. A small bonus, that.


P.S. I can't go to WikiPedia without finding something interesting that I wasn't looking for - Magical Beasts in Harry Potter

P.P.S. Did you click that link for WikiP's croup article? It's dreadfully short! Sure would be nice if some knowledgeable medical-type person would expand it or con one of their whitecoat buddies whose into pediatrics into doing that...nudge nudge.