Zzzzzzz

Well, after having to write my review for A Thousand Words for Stranger twice after I accidently overwrote my saved draft with another blog post, I think it’s time for me to go to bed. It’s relatively early – almost 9.30pm – but we had a night-time adventure last night and Dave and I both need to catch up on sleep.

I didn’t actually hear him, but about 3am Dave woke me to say Marcus was calling for me. I staggered out of bed, expecting the usual demand for a drink or a biscuit (or maybe just some attention) and was horrified to find him making horrible, rasping breathing sounds and barking a nasty, hacking cough. Dave came in to check on us both and we made a mutual decision to take him to the doctor.

To make what turned out to be a very long story (we got home again about about 6am) short, it turned out he had croup. The doctor at the emergency medical centre gave him some steroids to start relieving the swelling in this throat, but wanted us to take him to Starship (the children’s hospital) to be on the safe side. We got there (with a side trip included because on our usual route the road was closed – fortunately Dave found an alternative where I would have been totally screwed because I didn’t have a clue where to go next) and after being seen first by a triage nurse and then a registrar, they agreed the steroids had done the trick and he could go home again.

But we were assured we had done the right thing because if the swelling is serious enough and isn’t treated, the child can suffocate.

I don’t know how he managed it, but Marcus has been awake from 3am until he finally went to sleep about 9pm. Dave managed to get in about an extra hour’s sleep in the morning and I got maybe 2 or 3 over the course of the day, but we both need to do some catch up.

Sadly, since it’s a viral thing, Marcus’ excursion with his best friend (who he now doesn’t see as much because he’s at school and she’s still at daycare) has to be cancelled tomorrow, but so far he’s taking it very well and agreeing that we will plan something again once neither of them is sick (she’s been a bit under the weather too, so having two sick children with different sicknesses together seems like a bad idea).

So it’s off to bed with me now – after I check on Marcus – and hopefully Dave will follow me shortly. Even more hopefully, we won’t have a recurrence of it all tonight. We were told it was possible, but I’m hoping the odds will be on our side and we’ll all get to sleep through until tomorrow morning.