After William's teeny bit of a runny nose turned into a rattly cough and some noticeable wheezing I decided to call the doctor yesterday morning. I was able to make an appointment and brought him in shortly after. The doctor confirmed that he was indeed wheezing and told me that his diagnosis is bronchiolitis. He likened it to bronchitis in adults. It's caused by an infection of the bronchioles that lead to the lungs. As these airways become inflamed, they swell and fill with mucus, making breathing difficult. Fortunately (and I must admit, surprisingly to me) his ears are clear and there's no sign of infection. After the countless ear infections that poor Henry had, I'm thrilled that William's not starting out the same and I'm optimistic that maybe he won't be prone to them the way Henry was.
Because it's a viral infection, antibiotics aren't used to treat it; however, we do have to give him nebulizer breathing treatments. It's very sad. He's supposed to have a treatment every 4 hours and each lasts about 10 minutes. He's been very brave and I'm so proud of him. He cried the first two times, but today he's done really well and just sits sweetly and patiently in my lap while I hold the breathing mask over his nose and mouth. After the treatment is done, he coughs A LOT and that's supposed to be a good thing. It sounds bad, but he's getting the mucus up and out of his lungs. We're supposed to continue treatments for 2 weeks, but I'll see the doctor again in a week to check on him. We're praying that it will take less than 2 weeks for his lungs to be clear and that he can be done with his nebulizer after we see the doctor again. I am relieved in some ways to have a diagnosis - he's had a really off napping week, having a very hard time going down for his naps and then not sleeping very long which makes sense now; he has been sleeping well at night but coughing a lot throughout the night. On the other hand, I feel so sad for him that he's gotten so sick and I feel sad that he has to go through this. More about my "BFG" in a post to come.
4 comments:
I hope and pray that William gets better soon! Poor baby. It's sad that he's so sick, and that he's too young for popsicles and chicken soup and milkshakes...all the special treats you get when you feel sick (or rather when I feel sick :-)
Love,
Erica
Poor William :( I hope that starts to feeling better very soon. That picture of Henry at the movie was way cute. Dan and I were just talking about that movie Horton Hear's a Who, but we decided that we would wait a little bit longer for Olivia's first movie viewing :)
I LOVE YOUR BLOG!! How did she design it? I would love something like that. Maybe it would inspire me to blog more than I do. I have been a major slacker lately!
Oh no...I didn't know he was sick! I hope we didn't leave any germs behind! I remember you having to do that nebulizer thing with Henry when he was little and you would put Praise Baby in to keep him entertained. :-) I'm so sorry that little William is so sick and we'll be praying that he gets better soon.
Poor William! Big XOXO's to the little guy. I'm glad he's being so brave. Things like this always seem to be harder on us Mom's emotionally then it does on them...We hope he's better soon!
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