Please don't let it be pneumonia. Please don't let it be pneumonia. Please...

Home with the two younger boys today. Ig started coughing over the weekend, started running low-grade on Sunday. He's 99.3 now, but his cough is awful. He has to draw in a huge, narrow breath, and then he lets out this long spell of deep, resonant, slightly muffled-sounding coughs. He only weighs about 40 pounds, so they seem to take over his entire little body.

Oz had his usual dry, asthma for a few days, and we were giving him albuterol, but yesterday he really needed a neb before school. At 1:30, he was sent home from school. His teacher said he hadn't been himself all day - too quiet, low on energy. When the nurse called for us to pick him up, she said he was running about 99.

He needed a neb the second he got home, and he was running 99.9.  Overnight, he was coughing his head off, of course, and I had to give him albuterol and ibuprofen overnight. He was over 102 at 5:30 this AM.

Ig was up a lot overnight, too. I gave him Dimetapp.

This morning, Oz's cough was soooo bad. I gave him a neb of Xopenex, but less than an hour later his was still coughing violently, so I gave him another neb - DuoNeb this time. The DuoNeb has alwasy worked well for us, but it really hasn't slowed the coughing today.

The sound of the cough is different since that neb - it sounds more resonant. Maybe it's loosened up a bit? I can't say for sure, but it sounds AWFUL. And he's still coughing til he gags, pretty much.

This is NOT going to be a fun day. This seems so similar to what we went through in January with the pneumonias - I'm just praying this isn't the same thing!

I'm calling the doctor as soon as they open at 8:30 ET. I'll let you know how it goes.

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