Angels Devils

Good thing my littlest is such a funny little rascal while we're dealing with three kids with whooping cough. More about the whooping cough in a minute. On our way home from the pediatrician Sean announced from the backseat that he has a devil part. "Yeah, everybody does. It fights with the good part, the angel. They hate each other so they fight on the inside of your body. The outside of your body is good, it's the inside that has this good and evil. Sometimes the devil wins, sometimes the angel does." (He watches too many cartoons, I thought for the bejillianth time.)

I asked him if the devil inside him ever wins. "Yeah. When Luke's friends are over," he said grinning devilishly. Luke had to grin too. He knew all too well Sean spoke truth.

But about this whooping cough thing. Okay, no doctor has actually said Your kids have whooping cough, but mark my words...whooping cough is in the air and may be coming to a waft near you.

It started out a few weeks ago, Seth had a cold or something. No biggy. The other two got some symptoms as well. Seth's ebbed and flowed in severity, while Luke would sometimes cough to the point of tears pouring down his face. A few times I'd walk into a room and see his bulging red eyes and wet cheeks and ask with surprise, "Luke! Have you been crying?" No, just coughing. Sean was coughing in his sleep to the point that I'd lay awake listening for his breath to make sure he was still ticking. Both of them have thrown up while coughing in the last week. Never have I seen my kids cough like they've been coughing. Stan took Seth to the doctors on Saturday because his coughing was worsening. She gave him a strong antibiotic and cough medicine and said something about asthma. We knew all three kids didn't just get asthma at once. She said to bring him back in a few days if it doesn't change.

This morning I had a fright. He came down from his room and began coughing in front of me, clearly "whooping" in between each one and becoming more and more unable to breathe after every cough. Finally he was walking about the house arms outstretched trying to find his breath again and finally, after way too long for me, he settled down. I dragged out the old nebulizer and made him sit on the stool and inhale that for a while, if for nothing else but my own piece of mind.

I called the pediatrician and made appointments for Luke and Sean. The thought of them coughing in the future like I saw Seth doing this morning really scared me. She listened to my description of their coughing fits, and Seth's on top of that, and agreed they needed to be put on something. She's seen whooping cough lately, she said.

Turns out one of our friends' children have the very same cough. My sister said she witnessed it and thought the boy would puke and pass out, said she'd never seen coughing like it.

So...I don't know if it's "Whooping Cough," but it's a whooping cough.
Who would have thought?!

Comments

rosemary said…
Bad nurse joke...."It's not mucous it'snot." Sorry. That is pretty darn scary jennie. I have asthmatic kids and while coughing is a part of that it is the wheezing that is the sure sign.

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