Boo Croup

I can't believe I forgot to mention that a few days before we left for Texas Kinley got sick for the very first time since she came home from the hospital. She has had a couple of minor colds, but this was the first time we actually had to take her to the doctor because she was sick.

Kinley had been running a temperature around 100-102 for a couple of days. We didn't think much of it, and just gave her Tylenol and Motrin to help. After a couple days of having a fever Kinley started to get a really bad cough. The cough was so bad that she even threw up a couple of times. You could just tell that she felt horrible. She was really fussy and didn't want to eat or drink anything. Kevin and I felt so bad for her that we basically let he have a few free days where she could eat her favorite foods and watch more Phineas and Ferb than we usually let her watch.

Once the cough got to where it caused her to vomit a couple of times, and since she had a fever for several days we gave in and took her to her doctor. Dr. S. took one look at Kinley, listened to her breathe and told us she had croup. He also did a strep test to rule out that possibility, but it came back negative. Just croup.

Croup is a viral infection that may or may not be accompanied by a fever. There is a characteristic cough and swelling of the upper respiratory track. It does not affect the lungs however, which is good news for Kinley. Dr. S. prescribed a 3 day course of steroids to help with the swelling of her upper respiratory track, but since it is a viral infection antibiotics would not help. We were told to keep giving Tylenol and Motrin for her fever. Dr. S. said croup usually lasts for about a week and since he saw her on day 3 of her fever she was about halfway through already. He said that she should be fine for our trip to Texas and that there was no need to cancel any plans. That was good news.

Sure enough after a couple more days Kinley started to get better which was great news for everyone. I think Kevin and I took Kinley's illness harder than she did. It was just heartbreaking to see her feel so bad. I know that we have been very lucky Kinley has been as healthy as she has been since coming home from the hospital, but that doesn't seem to be very comforting when you are dealing with a sick child at that moment. I guess I should be happy that all she had was croup, a fairly common childhood illness that any kid could get.