Keep breathing

Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out. We’ve been counting my son’s breathes for the last 36 hours. It began Thursday when I got a call from daycare around 2:30 p.m. telling me I had to pick up Ryan because he had a fever. So I left work (thanks to my extremely understanding boss) and drove him from daycare right to the pediatrician’s office. She looked at him, listened to his chest, counted his breathes and checked the oxygen levels in his blood. She suspected it was bronchiolitis, gave us a nebuliser and told us to come back Friday. We went back for the recheck on Friday and from the doctor’s office, we went right to the hospital.
Ryan’s breathing was labored, his oxygen level’s were hard for the doctor to read and he was wheezing. The ER doctor’s took a chest X-ray and his lungs are clear, but he did test positive for RSV.

After an entire day at the ER, we are home tonight but we’re going back to the pediatrician tomorrow. He’s not any better, but he’s not worse. I’ve been told that this is a very common virus in infants. I’ve also been told it’s common in daycares and since the virus is so contagious, by the time a child exhibits symptoms of the disease, it’s already spread through the entire classroom.

I am so worried about him. This is not like anything I’ve ever experienced. I can’t help but worry about him, he’s having trouble breathing. It doesn’t get any scarier than that. It’s a simple act that keeps our heart beating and the blood pumping through our bodies and my son is working very hard at it.

I’m exhausted, I’m completely stressed out and all I can do is believe that we will make it through the weekend and my precious little boy will be healthy again.