Sick Baby Boy

Well, he's finally getting better now, which is why I have time to tell about it!  All 4 kids were hit with the same virus on the same day.  The 3 big kids were out at the Friant Farm for Vacation Bible School.  Nothing like summer camp AND staying at Papa and Grammy's house for 5 whole days!  The kids love it and Brian and I take on a big task at home that is otherwise impossible with a house full of kiddos.  Remember last year we built the play structure in the backyard. It was a fun surprise for them to return to.  


This year we sanded down and varnished our maple staircase that had never been finished.  Wow! This was a huge task!  Many late nights, sore sanding arms, dust-filled lungs...  but the silky, shiny finish is worth it all!  

The kids all had runny noses and a cough this year while they ran, sang, and played at the Son Surf Beach Bash VBS!  Papa Albaugh came with me to surprise the kids at their closing ceremony.  He had just returned from a 2 month long ministry project in Zambia.  (To learn more about NesTeam International click here.)  By the time they returned home (day 5), Lukas, Haylee and Hannah's noses were mostly dry and their coughs were clearing.  Not so for the baby boy.  He was just getting warmed up.  

Jaron's virus turned into non-stop coughing, crying, rapid breathing, about 2 weeks in.  We ended up at the Doernbecher Children's Hospital ER on a Sunday night.  The nebulizer treatments, suctioning, steam shower, and chest thumping therapies were not helping.  Although I packed my bags for a hospital stay, we were only there for 3 hours. (1-4 a.m. Thankfully, my mom and little sister came to let me take a nap the next day.)  The ER immediately gave him a nebulizer treatment called DuoNeb.  It has Albuterol and Atrovent to open up the lung airway quickly.  They also gave him a steroid called Dexamethasone to help reduce the swelling in his lungs.  He calmed down for the night, we were able to go home, and then see his pediatrician in the morning.  I was thankful that he never got a fever and he was able to find relief with the new scheduled nebulizer treatments that were started in the ER.  We are on week 4 and the boy is still coughing and junky (needs lots of suctioning), and regular nebulizer treatments (Albuterol and Pulmicort through inhalation system) through the day and night.  But he is SLOWLY improving.  Thank You, Lord!