Croup- There It Is!

So I spent my Sunday evening in the ER.
Oliver developed a nice chunky cough. He has coughed before and the doctor always said to do the usual (bulb, humidify etc..) and make sure there is no fever. Well, yesterday there was a fever. When I took his temp he was 102. The first thing I did was call the doctor's weekend answering service. My kids doc was not on call, so they were going to page the other one. I stripped down my little man and put him in the tub. I didn't give him meds right away. I just wasn't sure how much, and it seemed wrong to over/under medicate him without talking to the doc. The stupid little medicine bottles all say "under 24 lbs. talk to doctor" I was merely following protocol.
After the bath I took his temp again and it had gone up to 103. I began to sweat. It had been half an hour and no call from the doc yet. I then turned into that mom by calling the answering service again. The said that they paged to doctor and were surprised that a call was not made. They sent through another page.
An hour later I was done. Sage agreed and told me to take him to the ER. You can't screw around with an infant and a high fever. As I'm walking in I am swearing in my mind at the G-D-M-F doctor that never called me back.
After all the initial stuff at triage they brought us back to a room. It was nothing like the show ER. I did hear a page for Dr. Luca and was really excited thinking that my very own Kovach could be here. The nurses were swell. The doc came in and said that they needed to take a blood and urine sample- great.
Picture my little boy, with tourniquets wrapped around his arms then his legs...they could not find a vein. They used special lights...nothing would come. I looked down at MY baby screaming and wanted to die inside. I started to whisper "I'm sorry" into his ears and could feel his little tears on the side of his face. I felt like the worst mom in the world. Should I have just pumped him with infant tylenol? I questioned every move I made...I wish this on no mother.
Its only funny now that its over, but the reason they couldn't find a vein is because not only are the veins small, but Ollie's so chunky. That's right.
I swooped him into my arms and held his burning body close and he whimpered. He looked up at me and gave me the "boo-boo face"
After everything- the doctor said that Ollie has croup. He needed to be put on a steroid and has to go back to the doc today.
I'm glad its not pneumonia or something worse. I'm glad that Oliver slept well last night. I'm glad he woke up with no fever, although not happy about the fact that this morning was the first time he didn't smile at me when I walked in his room.
I'm pissed that the doctor that was paged never called...if I ever run into them, they will get a huge piece of my mind...you do not mess with this mother!
Happy monday...(wan wan wannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn)