‘Roid Rage

We spent most of the day Sunday at the pediatric urgent care. Sam had been fighting a fever and cough and it seemed to be getting worse instead of better. I was on the fence whether or not to take him to the doc that day, but when we were on our way to my grandma’s house for lunch, he was coughing so hard he was gagging.

So off we went to the urgent care. (but not before dropping Kate off at Grandma’s – urgent care with one kid is bad enough.)

When we arrived there was a posted 2-hour wait to see the doctor, so it freaked me out when the nurse took one look at Sam’s chest and said she needed to take us right back to the exam room. His oxygen levels were low, but apparently not alarmingly so (I think she said 94 but I have no idea what that means), and we were taken off the fast-track.

He was so pitiful, laying in my arms pale and feverish. They gave him ibuprofen and a breathing treatment, and he got a lot better.

Anyway, after two breathing treatments, a chest x-ray and some steroids, we were sent home – he had a double ear infection and a bad chest cold, but fortunately it hadn’t turned into pneumonia yet.

Now he’s working on a course of antibiotics and an inhaler – and the steroid prednisone.

I cringed when I heard prednisone – Andy was on it briefly a few years ago for poison ivy and he had a terrible reaction to it. One of the side effects is that it can raise blood sugar, which means it is a GREAT medication to give a type 1 diabetic. {insert sarcasm punctuation mark}

Another side effect is that it makes kids CRAZY.

The nurse told me he might be “a little hyped up,” but that was an understatement. Last night he was running in circles and couldn’t seem to stop. He was on me like white on rice, but even though he insisted on constantly sitting on my lap, he also insisted on constantly hitting/kicking me and yelling “Bad Mommy!”

It was awesome. But not unusual, according to my very scientific facebook poll. I put something about him being a nutjob on my status, and a number of parents commented saying that insanity was to be expected (and actually a doctor and a pharmacist commented so it was scientific!). A few also said something about insomnia but I refused to even consider that possibility (and fortunately he slept great. knock on wood.)

Oh and did I mention the urgent care doc said not to send Sam to school until at least Thursday? Yeah. Lovely. Yesterday my dad stayed with him, I’m here with him today and tomorrow is Andy’s tour of duty.

So I am going to be here all day with this amped up version of my son. Any advice for living through it? I’m sure he’ll be fine, it’s me I’m worried about now!