full circle

At this time last year, we were busy having a baby and worrying about him because he was having breathing problems. It was a scary and awful feeling to leave the hospital without him--he stayed two extra days so they could monitor him and make sure his breathing normalized. And here we are, a year later...worrying about Max because he's having breathing problems. He's got RSV, bronchiolitis, ear infections on both sides, strep throat, and he's cutting some new teeth. He's been sick since Monday night, but hit the peak (we hope) on Wednesday night. He had a high fever (103) and was breathing too fast, straining to breathe, and his oxygen saturation was too low. After three breathing treatments at the pediatrician's office, he wasn't imporving enough, so we took him to the emergency room at Children's Memorial Hospital. They gave him two more breathing treatments (this time with steroids to help open his airways), and he was better, but still not good enough. He was admitted to the hospital at about 3:00 Thursday morning. They monitored him closely and gave him breathing treatments every four hours, and he improved enough that they let him go home Thursday night. Today, he's very tired. He's slept most of the day, and he's been refusing all food and most liquid. He's spiked a fever off and on today, but nothing as bad as before. I took him to the doctor this morning and she said that he's about the same as he was when they released him from the hospital, but no worse. We hope he'll start feeling better in the next few days. But for today, Max is having a pretty sucky birthday. We think we'll wait a couple of weeks for him to feel better, then the four of us will have a late birthday celebration with cake and ice cream for our tough little guy.