Sweet Collins

In the past 10 days, Collins has been diagnosed with croup, hand, foot, mouth, and pneumonia all accompanied with fever. We went to MUSC Children's ER last Sunday because he was having trouble getting a deep breath. He got a dose of oral steroids that was suppose to last 3 days. On Monday, he felt great and we thought he was getting better but on Tuesday morning when he woke up he sounded just as awful as he did on Sunday. So, I took him to our pediatrician. That's when he got diagnosed with hand, foot, mouth and was given a steroid injection in each thigh. On Wednesday, we thought again that we were getting better but the same thing happened that on Thursday he sounded awful again. Friday was a little better (we thought) and so we let the weekend go by with no real change in Collins' behavior. Think lethargic, wimpy, not eating food in over a week, barely drinking - all in all, just pathetic. On Monday when he wasn't showing in progress of getting better I took him back to the pediatrician to get checked out again. Collins got a dose of oral steroids there and did a breathing treatment. She sent us on to MUSC Children's ER to get x-rays and completely checked over. The xrays either show a small patch of pneumonia on his upper right side or they show a spot where the lung has collapsed. They also gave him two breathing treatments, tylenol for the fever, started him on antibiotics, and admitted us to the hospital.

They took some blood once we were upstairs to check to see if the infection has moved into his bloodstream. While the phlembotanist (sp?) was doing this she commented how awesome he was doing. I had to break it to her that he has no voice to cry and his body has no energy to fight her. We have to wait 48 hours to get those results.

This morning he has more energy than he has in a week. He actually ate some breakfast and has been drinking pretty well. But, we've been down this path before where the day after steroids has him feeling great and then the following day we're back to our pitiful selves so I'm not quite as optimistic at this point as I probably should be. He slept great last night even with the vitals being taken every four hours. The couch wasn't too terrible to sleep on but the baby next door screamed all night so that kept me up. We're waiting on Dr. Summers to make her rounds this morning to see if we're going home or staying another night.

Get better, Sweet Collins!