He Did It!

Aaron did it.  He finally did it!  He caught a cold and We. Stayed. Home!!

Disclaimer here:  from what I felt after he gave it to me, and the siblings felt who gave it to him, it was a pretty minor, mild cold.  But hey!  I'll take it.

Last Saturday his eyes were pretty teary.  No, he wasn't crying, but they were a bit red and swollen and runny.  (Okay, that sounds weird.)  Sunday was a bit more, plus I started suctioning him and he was needing a little more oxygen.  Oh, and our nurse was out sick that night.  So Aaron and I got to "play" during the night.  That means, I tried to make the room as dark as possible so I could sleep on the floor, and he worked really hard on finding as many rattle toys as he could in his bed to keep me awake.  Whatever.

By Sunday night, it was obvious that he wasn't going to be making it to school on Tuesday for his first day.  Monday, I attended the funeral for a friend's sweet eight month old.  Precious Ryder was born with a heart condition.  In his short life, he had three open heart surgeries and was listed for transplant a month before he passed away.  Aaron had to go with me because he was sick enough that I wasn't leaving him with anyone.  And yeah, we ended up spending the service in the hallway because he needed help.

Tuesday was about the same, maybe a little worse. I think we hit the peak probably Tuesday.  By yesterday (Thursday) he was doing really well, and today, Friday, he'll finally get on that big yellow school bus and start his new school year.

So what did it take to keep him home?  We did lots of albuterol, lots of CPT (chest physio therapy, also known as beating on the baby, or in his mind, spa treatments.  Yeah, he really does love it, really!).  Combined those with much more oxygen than normal, and somewhere each day, bagging him between one and three times to force his lungs open a little more each.  And of course, lots and lots and LOTS of suctioning.

But he did it.  He beat this one.  I'm just hoping that this business of missing the first day of school doesn't become a pattern.  But if it does, oh well.  That means he's still here, still with us.  And I'll take that.

A bend in the road is not the end of the road... unless you fail to make the turn. ~Author Unknown