Urgent Care Evening

So yesterday Bronson gets up for school and he's complaining that he can't breathe and is coughing a lot. He didn't have a fever and even though he had a cough, he didn't really seem sick. But I decided to let him stay home from school anyway because he was insisting he felt horrible. I figured the "can't breathe" thing was due to being congested or whatever. His cheeks were rosy and he looked fine.

Throughout the day he seemed like he was breathing fast and kind of shallow. I asked him a couple times if he's doing that on purpose. (Those with kids know that they can exaggerate their symptoms!) After I got off work we sat down to do a Lego airplane together, and he seemed just sluggish and "off". I was making dinner and he said again that it was hard to breathe, so I decided we better head to urgent care. By this time it was 7:30 and urgent care is 20 minutes away and I know they close at 8:00. Was crossing my fingers all the way there!

We got there and had to wait about 10 minutes to be seen. Bronson seemed to be doing fine, was chatty, but still breathing kind of fast. They did the oxygen level thing and it was at 92. Well I guess anything under 96 is cause for concern. The doctor also said he had significant wheezing so they brought out the nebulizer, which worked well, but wasn't bringing up the oxygen levels enough.

The doctor wanted to take Bronson's blood. Bronson looked at me with a look that said "That's it, I'm out of here!" He had a bad experience when he was 4, the nurse couldn't find a vein and poked him over and over. Well this doctor used to draw blood full-time, so one poke and he was in - not even a tear over it, so that was good! He didn't like the numbers he saw with the blood draw - I don't remember exactly what was high but some count was high, which meant the immune system was low and fighting something. So the doctor was concerned it could be Pneumonia, so off they went for a Chest X-ray.

The doctor finally concluded that things were leaning toward Viral Bronchitis with Asthma thrown in the mix. While we were waiting for the x-ray to get looked over Bronson's oxygen level went back up to 96, thankfully. So we got an inhaler and a prescription for steroids and antibiotics and went on our way.

Of course we got to Walmart at 9:02, and the pharmacy closed at 9:00. (Wish I would have thought of Walgreens - that pharmacy is open until 10). So we went home with just the inhaler and a miserable little boy! I hardly slept all night, because his breathing was not comforting - shallow, fast and wheezy.

But we made it through the night and got him started on his meds by mid-morning so hopefully he's on the mend.

The doctor at Urgent Care said we should follow up with Bronson's doctor about his asthma control. We were told before that he could have allergy induced asthma, so I'm hoping it isn't worse now! Shane also has asthma, which is usually only a problem during cold season.

Just like last year - a couple weeks into school and the urgent care trips start! Blech.