After about 15-20 minutes of watching Jude struggling to breathe without any improvement and him crying because he is freaked that he cannot breathe, I decided to pack Jude up and take him to the ER. Luckily, we now live about 2 miles from a hospital.
Once at the hospital, I became even more frightened by the reaction of the hospital staff. I noticed several other people in the ER waiting room as I walked to the registration desk. As the tech at the registration desk is taking our information, the triage nurse hears Jude and pokes her head out. She takes one look at Jude and disappears into the ER. About 20 seconds later she comes out and says to skip the registration and there is already a room ready for Jude. Once in the room, about 5 doctors and nurses descend on Jude within less than a minute. Those two things are what really freaked me out. Since when can you skip registration and go straight to the head of the line? AND I have never received that fast of care at an ER!
Jude quickly got a nebulizer treatment with three separate meds in it. He also got an oral steroid, which he promptly vomited back up, so then he got a steroid shot. About halfway through the nebulizer treatments, he could finally breathe again and he calmed down. After about 10 minutes he was back to smiling and flirting with his nurse. The nurse commented on how the change in him was night and day.
After about 2 hours in the ER (most of which was making sure his chest x-ray was clear and that his oxygen levels stayed stable), we finally went home. I had Jude sleep in our bed, so I could keep a close eye on him.
Today he is still Croupy and his breathing is still raspy, but at least he can breathe. Hoping tonight is not as bad!
