Cough remains, but much better

The vomiting must have been the last hurrah of the pneumonia. Since then Riley has been feeling much better and has had significantly more energy. He still has a rough cough, but it does not seem to affect his mood, his breathing, or his ability to sleep. We are all very grateful for this speedy recovery. As long as he continues to be energetic and the fever does not return, I'm thinking of sending him back to school either tomorrow or Wednesday. Hopefully tomorrow.

A bout of vomiting

All in all, yesterday was a good day. Riley was slightly more energetic and was even getting into a bit of trouble with his little brother. They were shouting at each other--an annoying game they have--and I decided that kind of game was best played outside.

They were out there for about 10 minutes before I decided to go join them in the yard. When I got out there, Riley was holding his tummy, saying that he wasn't feeling well. Then he started throwing up. Four times. And it wasn't a coughing fit that set it off.

He hasn't eaten much in the last 10 days, so it was disheartening to the see the little remains of his lunch on the lawn. Not sure what to make of this episode. I'm hoping we can just chalk it up to a little too much excitement.

Albuterol prescribed, slightly better

The cardiologist gave the green light yesterday for Riley to get the Albuterol inhaler. After some hesitation, Riley has been doing great with it and it seems to be helping.

Riley actually slept soundly last night--a drastic comparison to the previous night when uninterrupted sleep was infrequent--and actually was a teeny, tiny bit smiley this morning. The smiles didn't last long, but I did see them for a couple of minutes.

The cough is still frequent today, but it seems that it might be a little less intense, with less gagging. I have not taken his temperature today because he hasn't seemed grumpy enough for me to think he's running a fever. Overall, it seems that Riley is getting better.

Unfortunately, he will miss his second tee ball game tomorrow. If he's feeling up to it, we are going to take him over to the park so that he can at least watch his teammates play. I also hope that by next Wednesday, he'll be able to go back to school. It's been a long two weeks at home.

Pneumonia in both lungs

It's been a rough couple of weeks here in San Carlos.

Carter was sick for five days with a fever, conjunctivitis in both eyes, an ear infection, and an upper respiratory infection. He's been on a significant dose of antibiotics since last Wednesday evening.

The next day, Riley started to feel sick and ended up with a fever as well. We didn't think much of it because Carter had just had a nasty cold. Anyway, on day 6, Riley still wasn't improving. I called the advice nurse at Kaiser and she wanted me to take him to the ER, since he was having a little bit of labored breathing. We decided not to do that because he showed improvement after some Tylenol reduced his fever and his breathing became more natural and relaxed.

This morning I took him to the pediatrician and he could hear crackling sounds in both of his lungs. We were sent for a chest x-ray and there was quite a bit of white wispy marks on the x-ray confirming "double pneumonia," although he said that the right lung was worse than the left lung.

He was prescribed azithromycin (a powerful antibiotic), and we will go back tomorrow late morning for a follow-up appointment. He may end up with an albuterol inhaler, but it causes an increased heart rate and we wanted to avoid that until Dr. Tarnoff gave it the green light.