Caroline's trip to the hospital Sunday night

Here is the short version of the story:

We went over to my sister’s house for the weekend and I noticed Saturday evening that she was breathing harder thank normal and wheezing. I did not think much of it. She did not sleep well that night, but felt ok in the morning. She was still breathing heavy, but not as often. We left and drove home about 2:00pm Sunday and by the time we got home she was wheezing, breathing really hard and had a fever of 100.1. I watched her closely for the next couple of hours and she just got worse. I took her to urgent care at 6:00pm at TMH and we were seen right away. They gave her a breathing treatment and took her pulse and oxygen levels. The were both good, but they were worried that she had a 104 fever now. They transported us to the main ER in an ambulance so she could continue her breathing treatment. They took 2 x-rays, 1 of her throat to check for narrowing of her epiglottis and 1 of her chest to check for pneumonia. They also gave her Tylenol for her fever. The x-rays showed that her throat was narrowed at the top therefore causing this therefore they diagnosed it as croup. They thought about keeping her overnight for observation, but they said the pediatric ward was full of sick kids and they did not want her to catch anything else since her immune system was low anyway. We were there until midnight and then had to get up and go to our regular doctor at 7:00am Monday. The doctor gave her a steroid to take for the next 5 days, but said she is not contagious unless she has a fever. She is fine now, but as a precaution I have kept her out of daycare. Jake was in Australia, but my mother-in-law went to the hospital with me and stayed the whole time we were there.

Here is a link to anything and everything about Croup. I have also included the definition in this email just in case you don’t have time to look at the link. This was a very scary thing that we went through so I want you all to know the signs of it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croup

Croup is a group of respiratory diseases that often affect infants and children[1] under age 6. It is characterized by a barking cough; a whistling, obstructive sound (stridor) as the child breathes in; and hoarseness due to obstruction in the region of the larynx. It may be mild, moderate or severe, and severe cases, with breathing difficulty, can be fatal if not treated in a hospital.[2]