Asthma

After a pretty crappy weekend when both Elias and Dave had a stomach bug things started to look better on Sunday afternoon and I was looking forward to a new healthier week. Unfortunatelly that did not turn out to be the case.

When Dave picked up Elias from nursery on Monday they said that he had been coughing a lot so we decided that he should stay at home with Dave on Tuesday. On Tuesday afternoon Dave noticed that Elias' breathing sounded a bit strained and he was extremely grumpy. He was pretty tired as well so we put him to bed a bit early.

He woke up again around 11.30 pm and his breathing was even worse and he was quite miserable and just wanted to be cuddled. After consulting the medical advice line we decided to take him to the hospital. We figured neither of us would get any sleep anyway so it was better to go straight away than wait until the morning.

At the hospital Elias was made to take some cortisone pills dissolved in water and inhale some medicines four times, which of course he hated. The doctor gave the diagnose "infection triggered asthma" since he has had problems breathing before (in May) in connection to a cold.

So now we have been given two different medicines for Elias to inhale, a task that is close to impossible. It did seem to go a bit better tonight than this morning so hopefully he will get used to it. It is not ordinary astma so he shouldn't need medicine all the time, but as soon as he starts coughing we should start treating him. Hopefully having the drugs to give him will mean that he won't have to have a cough for weeks on end like he did before Christmas.

The last few nights have been quite bad and all of us have gotten way to little sleep and I guess that has made at least me pretty emotional. At the moment it feels like a pretty big blow that he has this condition and I feel so sad for him. It is a quite common thing amongst young children and many "grow out of it" but still. I just want him to be healthy and happy, preferably all the time... It is horrible to give him the medicine because he gets so angry and sad when force it on him, but hopefully he will learn to accept that he has to take it. It does break my heart though, and I feel like the worst mum ever for doing it to him even though I know it is for his own good.

This evening he has been in an excellent mood and with any luck he sleeps better tonight and then all of us should feel better. Keep your fingers crossed for a good night's sleep.

Good night