ER trip

We had our first visit to the ER last night. Caitlyn started to get a fever around 3:00pm yesterday and wasn't going down after taking Tylenol. When we laid her down for bed, she started to cought really bad and sounded like she was wheezing. I called her doctors office to speak with a nurse on call to see what I should do. The nurse on call said since this was her first time experiencing this, I should take her to the ER. Around 11:15pm, I took her to Sentara Careplex ER. After waiting in the waiting room for about an hour and half, we were finally called back to a room. As soon as we got into the room a nurse brought Caitlyn some Motrin and listened to her chest. About 5 minutes later, the doctor came in and checked her out. He listened to her throat and chest and checked her ears. The left ear was a little red so he gave her some antibiotics for her ear. He said her chest sounded crystal clear so there was no need for a chest x-ray. He diagnosed Caitlyn with Croup. Basically Croup is a barking cough that comes with a cold. Caitlyn's croup was a viral infection, so they treated it with a steroid before we left the ER. You can read and learn about Croup at the following website:

http://children.webmd.com/tc/croup-topic-overview

So far today Caitlyn hasn't been coughing like she was last night, but they say that the coughing usually comes at night. Hopefully tonight she will sleep better than she did last night!

I hope this is our first and last trip to the ER!