Acute Bronchitis, Go Away!

Another sleepless night. Just as I dozed off around 10:30pm, Boofus had a coughing fit.

Every Night:

We meet in his bathroom, where I stand next to him, rubbing his back (while he is puking up mucous & gasping for air)-- assuring him, loving him, wiping his face with a clean cloth, hand him a drink of water, then I walk him back to his bed, cover him up, kiss his cheek and tell him I'm listening for the next time. Which will be precisely when I am about to succomb to exhaustion. After the 3rd time last night/early this morning, I couldn't go back to sleep. So I got up, and Googled "Acute Bronchitis"--again. This time, I typed in "Acute Bronchitis home remedies"--I wish I had done that 4 weeks ago, my kids would probably be well now.

First- I should've been giving them 500mg Vitamin C every hour.

2nd- No sugary juices. Warm water. Warm echinacea tea. 8 oz. x 8 times a day.

3rd- A warm air humidifier--not the cool one I've been using.

4th- A steamy shower 3 times a day to loosen the phlegm.

5th- No cough syrup to suppress the coughing when there's phlegm--it has been counteracting the mucinex. ugh!

6th- Wrap warmed up towels around their chest to again, relax their chest. And good ole-fashioned Vicks on their chests.

And those are just the top 6. The top 6 I wish I'd known four weeks ago. So, when the Caboose got up at 6:30am with her first coughing fit of the day, I put her in a warm tub, threw a towel in the dryer, made the echinacea tea with honey and let her sit in the bath with the curtain closed for 20 minutes. Then I wrapped her up in that warm towel and gave her the tea, which she did not scoff at!

And at 8 AM sharp, I called the Dr's office again, making an appt for the kids with a different Dr. Yes, I want a 2nd opinion. I'm not happy with our new doctor--he could've been more thorough with home treatment of this cough, and he just smiled, filled out a Rx form and sent us on our way. Twice. Even when I told him I was using a cool air humdifier ("Humidifier is good" he said)and cough syrup ("um, Okay", he said.) ugh. So it's time for another perspective.

I don't know how these kiddos do it but they are happily playing, like yesterday and the days before with one another--stopping to run to the bathroom, cough their guts out, and go right back to their movie and fort. If it were me, I'd crawl into bed in a heap and complain alot more than they are...Boofus just got another sheet out of the linen closet. For the new fort design. They're building "UP" now. Where's my camera?

****P.S. Later: Pneumoina or Pertussis. We'll know by Friday if it's the latter. New antibiotics, cough syrup with codiene for nighttime, and a nebulizer for Boofus. No school for the rest of the week. Spoke to School District Nurse and Principal about possible tutoring..yea! I see the light at the end of the tunnel and it looks nothing like a train.