Oh What a Week

This past Monday Keith left on a 7 AM flight to Chicago for 3 days. He was due back late Wednesday night. Keith doesn't travel for work much, but every time he does it seems that Oliver gets sick. This past trip was a doozy for us. Monday Oliver had a mild cough. By Tuesday morning he woke up with quick shallow breaths, coughing and wheezing. We loaded up for school and we didn't make it a block when I decided that he needed to go to the Dr. We got into see the Dr first thing and his oxygen level was at 88 when it should be in the high 90's. They immediately gave him a breathing treatment of albuteral (sp?). His oxygen level went up to 91. Since there was improvement but not to where they wanted it they prescribed Oliver breathing treatments every 4 hours for two days with an oral steroid twice a day for five days. (ironically, Madalyn is on the same oral steroid for her asthma) He was diagnosed with RAD (Reactive Airway Disease). If you recall, Oliver was in the hospital at 12 weeks old with RSV. At that time, they told us he would be more prone to asthma. Since then, we have kept a close eye on his breathing. They said that RAD is similar to asthma but he could grow out of it. After 2-3 breathing treatments on Tuesday he seemed to be feeling better but we kept it up through Wednesday night. Keith came home late Wednesday evening and took Oliver to his follow-up appointment on Thursday. His breathing and wheezing had improved and he was cleared to go back to school with only two breathing treatments a day in the morning and evening. He was very happy to get back to school to see his buddies. I think sick time at home with Mom was not as exiting as running around with his buddies. Especially once he started breathing and feeling better. Since I was the care taker while Keith was out, I didn't get many photos to capture our moments. However, I did get a photo of Keith giving Oliver a breathing treatment later in the week. Oliver was a real trooper with the treatments and he would sit very still through the whole 15-20 minute process. Of course it didn't hurt that we would turn on a good movie for him like Cars, Finding Nemo or Madagascar and he was perfectly content. Occasionally he would even hold the device. Way to go, Kiddo!!!

I have some videos of Oliver running around once he started to feel better. Check it out! I think you could say he had a lot of pent up energy!!

Last week Oliver saw me spinning around being silly and now he thinks it is fun to do as well. Caution: he nearly hits the coffee table in his spinning performance. It may make you gasp! As they say... boys will be boys.