Croup Ba Doop

I don't know why, but whenever I hear the word "croup" I think of that Salt N Pepa song. Yeah, I always sing a little song in my head and it goes something like this: "croup, croup ba-doop, croup ba-doop ba-doop ba-doop!"  Does that make me weird? Wait, don't answer that...

Anyway, Haeden has croup. If you aren't familiar with it, it's this horrible disease where your skin turns green and you get red spots all over. Kinda like this:

Only kidding! It is really just a virus that kids tend to get. They develop inflammation of the upper respiratory system which can cause breathing difficulties and a "barking" cough. Haeden went to bed Monday night just as healthy as ever and then woke up two and a half hours later sounding just awful. He has a tendency to get congested overnight due to his allergies so we didn't worry too much at first even though it is unusual for it to actually effect his (re: our) sleep. However, by 5am the next morning he was a lot worse. After a breathing treatment he wasn't showing any signs of progress and we were getting increasingly worried.

I called a nurse at the hospital we work for and she instructed us to take him in immediately after hearing his wheezy breathing over the phone. I was fine up until she mentioned calling 911. Then my voice broke a little and I had to choke back the tears to share the advice with Hubby. We ended up taking him to the nearest ER because, honestly it would be faster than calling anyone to come out to the house. We were there within 10 minutes.

It must have been he fastest ER visit in history. There were probably about seven kids in the waiting room (there is a separate side for pediatrics), but they took us back within about five minutes of our arrival. The nurse told us it was croup pretty much immediately and after seeing the physician for confirmation they gave him a breathing treatment and an oral medication and sent us on our way. We were in and out within an hour. Oh, and we had the first parking space. Score!

By the time we had left his breathing was already back to normal and you'd never even know he was sick, other than the occasional hacking up of a lung cough. I had to stay home from work, but he went on with his day like normal and proceeded to drive me up the wall before and after nap time. Ahhh, nap time. My preeeecious.