Pneumonia

As you can probably tell from the tired, sick eyes in the picture, our little man has not been well. We'd been having a really active week with new outings and a new playgroup, and the kids had been having a wonderful time. Liam has had a mild cough that he just can't seem to shake, but the doctor had said he was still getting over his cold and not to worry. So I didn't...until we were on our way home from the grocery store on Wednesday afternoon, and Liam started making a sort of grunting noise. Not to be crass, but at first I thought he was just "working on his diaper" (as my grandmother called it). We were only a few minutes from home, but it was clear pretty quickly that that wasn't it, and when I took him inside he just lay down on the floor looking really limp and pitiful. I called the doctor, put the kids straight back in the car and headed to the doctor's office (fortunately it's only a few blocks away!).

By that point it was obvious to me that he was having trouble breathing (breathing troubles and head injuries are my two major fears when it comes to childhood accidents and illnesses...2 weeks ago it was a mild concussion and then this?!? seriously, this boy is going to give me a heart attack!). While we waited with the nurse for the doctor, Liam's temperature spiked. The doctor said it could either be a "simple" respiratory infection or pneumonia. We were sent away with antibiotics and orders to go to the hospital if he got worse, come back in the morning he stayed the same, or say a prayer of thanks and continue the antibiotic for a week if he got better.

No sleep that night (or the next 4 and counting...) as I watched him and listened to his ragged breathing. No worse but certainly no better, so back to the doc the next morning where the doctor confirmed pneumonia. I'm a bit paranoid about hospitals (as in, I think you're just as likely to get sick as to get well there), and our doctor actually shares those feelings, so he upped the dose of antibiotic, added in a second one and got us on a strict routine of fever-reducers and sent us home (again with orders to go to the ER for any change). By Friday morning, his breathing sounded MUCH better and he actually started to perk up & play with some toys for a bit (I knew he was feeling better when he put on Julia's high-heeled princess dress-up shoes).

The doctor was very pleased with his progress and we were able to drop the meds down a bit (good news since they were not making his tummy happy), and we had a pretty good day on Friday. But as with most illnesses, we had a bit of a backslide on Saturday (see pictures above and below)...
Since he didn't want to be more than 2 inches away from me all day, I sat him on the kitchen counter and stood next to him while I fixed lunch. Within a few minutes he had stretched out and fallen asleep, ragged breathing and fever again. Not good. I called the doctor and gave a rare thanks for the Aussie medical system that lets doctors make house calls! Of course, the doctor then took nearly 5 hours to arrive and by that time (and 2 doses of antibiotics and a dose of Tylenol later), Liam was up and playing and breathing like a champ! Guess the bug just needed to raise its ugly head for one last hoorah (let's hope that's the end of it).

As an aside-- Liam has refused to sleep in his own bed since Thursday. I know I should just be thankful for his relatively speedy recovery, but I am really really hoping this is not a permanent side effect of the illness!