Croup. I have never heard of it up until Sunday, December 7, 2008.
Last Friday, I was decidedly sick and had a sore throat. The next day, I came down with a fever and a runny nose. Try as I might to stay germ free for the baby, it's quite impossible when she's attached to your breast and mucous starts streaming from your nose without any warning and with no tissue in sight. I thought I was home free at first because she was ok. Then, on Saturday evening the hub and I decided to watch Pacquiao's fight via pay per view. It was $55 so we wanted to make it worth our while. I put the baby to bed at exactly 9:00 pm because the fight started at 9:00 too. Trouble was, she refused to stay asleep and would wake up every 10 minutes or so and would want to play. Normally, I loved playing with her and wouldn't mind if she stayed up for a couple more minutes. But this was Pacquiao, people!! This was quite an expensive show and I didn't want to miss Pacquiao pummeling de la Hoya to a swollen, bloody pulp. So, the next time yanna decided to wake up and want to play, i ignored her cries for attention for 10 minutes. By the time the 10 minutes was up, she had worked herself into a fit and was screaming like crazy.
A couple of hours later, i noticed that the baby was snoring like there was something stuck in her throat. By 4:00, it was clear that the baby was losing her voice. I picked her up and immediately noticed that she had a fever. It was at 101 F. I picked up the phone and called her pediatrician. She told me she'd meet up with me at 10 am. I hung up.
We met at the clinic even if it was a Sunday and they were closed. Oddly enough, the baby's laborous breathing stopped when we were at the clinic. We were supposed to attend Gabby's birthday at Famous Dave's but I decided to call my friend to tell her that we wouldn't be able to make it.
Later that night, the baby's breathing started to become laborous again. This time, it was so bad that even her daddy freaked out. We decided to rush her to the emergency room and I was so upset and near tears that I couldn't even narrate to the doctor what was happening to my little love. Chummy had to do it for me. Again, her symptoms dissapeared when the doctor got around to checking her and she was by then sound asleep. She had also completely lost her voice and absolutely NOTHING would come out from her lips. Not even a peep.
The doctor gave her some oral steroids and had the nurse explain to us that she had croup and what we can when we get home. Croup is a viral disease that affects infants during winter. Researchers have noticed a higher incidence of asthma in children who have been affected with croup. The low pitched noise when they breathe in and out is called stridor and it is caused by the swelling of their vocal chords. The best that a parent can do if a child has croup is to turn on the hot water in the shower and close the doors. The heat will eventually help her larynx become less inflamed and if that still doesn't help, to take her out for a walk in the cold night air. Children with croup usually do not present symptoms when they get to a physician because they get exposed to the cold air on their way to the hospital or clinic which helps bring down the inflammation.
I nursed the baby for a week. Everytime she started to become upset, I would rush to her side immediately because I didn't want her to stress her healing vocal chords too much. She sounded like an alien trying to communicate sometimes. hahaha i can laugh about it now but it was not a laughing matter at the time.
I couldn't help thinking that this would never happen if we were back home. Nevertheless, I was relieved to know that croup is a common illness and my baby will be right as rain in no time. Sigh, the joys and pain of parenthood....
