RSV

Oooh, baby's first cough turned out to be RSV.  Not a fun little virus for babies.

We went to the doctor today, the on call doctor, and they checked him out.  He had some suspicious ear wax, but they didn't seem to think it was infectious.  And they tested him for RSV.  The whole process involved scraping his ear wax and then sucking some mucus out of his nose after injecting a little saline solution.  He was livid.  We saw Dr. Gass (who I really liked) and he said that for being labeled "hypotonia" he sure was strong.  He had more fight in him for that 20 minutes than all of the time at Children's Hospital in Seattle.  And he's lost his little baby voice!  When he cries, he "silent cries" with no noise!

RSV is a cold in adults, but in babies, especially babies under the age of 6 months, it can be really bad.  A lot of babies are hospitalized for dehydration because they stop drinking fluids during the virus.  They can't treat it with antibiotics because it's a virus, so you just have to let it run it's course.  I have to keep an eye on his fluid intake, or if he seems to get worse.  He's not cranky but he's SO congested in his chest.  No runny nose, no fever, just an awful cough and wheeze.  A moment ago he coughed out a bunch of mucus (which is good, I suspect).  He is eating less too.

Well, so I went home from work today and I won't be working tomorrow.  Say goodbye to all those vacation days!!  We'll see how he is on Friday.  He can technically go back whenever as long as he doesn't have a fever, but the Dr. said he should stay home today and Melinda wants me to stay home tomorrow.  I guess I did go back to work part time at first.  (:  The Dr. also said that Lucas will probably be more susceptible to respiratory-wheezy stuff for quite awhile after this episode of RSV.  Hopefully this isn't a sign of asthma to come.  He asked if it ran in the family.  I know Lindsey had a touch of it, but I'm not sure about anyone on Bri's side.

Well, so below is a video of Lucas coughing, and you can hear him wheeze too, if you listen closely.  I think his cough just sounds so bad, I had to film it.  Megan is coming over to make us dinner, which is really nice because I am super tired.