Emergency Room and Mario Kart

We have had the crud going on at our house for the last couple weeks. Now that we are all FINALLY feeling better, I thought I'd come and blog about our fun experiences. Last Monday (the 10) Avery woke up with the croupy seal bark. He was fine after putting him on his nebulizer, but would cough and his throat would close up after an hour. So, he spent a lot of time in the bathroom with the hot shower going! He wasn't getting any better and still having a hard time breathing in the afternoon, so we decided he needed to go to the doctor and see if maybe he needed a different breathing treatment. Once we got to their, his oxygen count was dropping and his was having a hard time breathing. The doctor came in and took one look at him and sent us to the ER. By the time we got there, he was starting to turn blue and his oxygen count was barely 80. The ER nurses got him hooked up to a big machine and gave him an EPI (a breathing treatment) and got him on oxygen. The first treatment didn't really take as he was still having a hard time finishing a sentence, and his chest was still caving every time he took a breath. So, they gave him a dose of Decadron (a steroid) and another EPI treatment. Since he had to have 2 treatments in an hours time, he was admitted to the hospital for overnight observation. He had to have 2 additional treatments throughout the night, but was taken off the oxygen. Then, they were able to switch him back to the albuteral treatment, which he did once before we left that afternoon. Grant stayed overnight with Avery, so I could stay home with the other two kids, as they were sick also.
Avery absolutely LOVED the hospital. He got tons of attention. He got control of the remote control for the TV and I found out that he watched Food Network most of the time (that's my boy!!!). He like the food that they had. But, he especially loved the fact that he was the oldest kid on the pediatric floor that day and got full use of the Game Cube. He played Mario Kart all day on Tuesday. He thought it was great! Although, when the doctor came in that afternoon and asked if he was ready to go home, he said, "I'll have to think about it!"
We did make it home and he hasn't needed any breathing treatments since. He is doing 100% better. He went to the pediatrician on Monday (17th) and everything looks good. He is going to have a CTScan on January 2nd to find out what is causing his breathing issues. He should have outgrown the croupy cough by now, but hasn't. They think there might be some sort of obstruction causing the issue when he gets sick. Or, it could just be how his is! If there is some sort of blockage, he will have to have surgical intervention to take care of it. If it's just him, we will get a prescription for Decadron and possibly some EPI-pens to have at home, so we can treat it here, instead of always having to take him to the doctor. We already have a nebulizer and albuteral for his asthma, so we can continue to use that. They will keep a current prescription on file for him for that.
So, we are all better now, a few sniffles here and there, but nothing major. We will now just have to wait and see what the CTScan shows and go from there..................