RSV

Long day of work

Oliver hasn't been feeling the best lately so we've had him to the doctor's office a few times. He's basically had a cold his whole life after leaving the hospital. He's been treated for 2 sinus infections that do go away but come back again. This time though, he' never had anything like this. It started last Friday with him vomitting up a few times and a more congested cough. Before he would have coughing spells but it was a dry cough and his lungs always sounded clear when I would listen to them with my stethoscope. Monday morning I took him to the clinic and he was diagnosed with bronchitis because his lungs sounded so tight so they put him on some antibiotics. Tuesday they added prednisone to the mix of meds. Wednesday we went back to the clinic because he was about the same and they wanted to follow up with him. They put him on some zantac to help with all the vomitting. He would throw up 3-4 times a day mostly throwing up after meds were given but looking mostly mucusy. Since I am a little over-protective of Oliver because of all he's been through I called our pediatrician in Dubuque just to make them aware of what was going on with Oliver and they wanted to see him right away. With all of the lung problems he's had since birth I did not want to take any chances. We then went to Dubuque yesterday and after a chest x-ray, labs, and culture of is nose it came back positive for RSV. RSV is a respiratory disease mostly found in kids younger than 2. Some require oxygen therapy and hospitalization but Oliver did not because we caught it soon enough and he's just a little fighter. It also caused him to have an ear infection so he was put on a different antibiotic and then albuterol nebulizer treatments to help airate his lungs. Here's a picture of our little man doing his breathing treatment.

He doesn't like them really at all but we've come up with an routine to help. Did you know that you can go 7 minutes singing Old McDonald without repeating animals if you go through all the farm animals and zoo animals. The last few minutes left of the treatment we sing our ABC's and count numbers and sometimes he does cry which is okay because then the med gets in his lungs better. I can already see a bit of improvement in him today. I must say that the treatments are helping because his lungs sound much improved after them.