Just Your Typical Cold… Until It Wasn’t: Our Unexpected Croup Scare

We had an unexpected illness that ended with us in the hospital. Now George is completely fine, but this was something we never thought we'd be dealing with in the middle of the night. All we could think in the moment was, “Poor little man can't seem to catch a break.” This experience was scary, but we did learn some new tricks from this illness.

Just Your Typical Cold

George woke up, and it was clear to us that he had a cold. He had a super runny and stuffy nose. We had to use saline drops and the snot sucker to get him somewhat clear. It was working okay, but you could just tell that he was still stuffy. He didn't seem overly upset that day, so we continued on with our day.

He was playing and having a great time with his cousins all afternoon, and we would have never thought anything was wrong. We went through our nightly routine and put him to bed with no issues. We were thinking he'd wake up the next day feeling a lot better after a nice night of sleep.

Boy, were we wrong.

Worst Cough Ever

In the middle of the night, we were woken up by the worst-sounding noise coming from George. He was crying and seemed to be having a hard time breathing. I went straight to his room to pick him up and cuddle him. He was so worked up, and the more he cried, the more he coughed. It was the worst-sounding thing I have ever heard.

We were worried about his breathing and decided that we weren't going to mess around with this, so we headed off to the hospital. All I could think was, thank goodness we live so close to a hospital. I sat in the back seat with him to try and keep him calm because he was still upset.

Waiting at the Hospital

We got to the hospital in no time at all. We got registered with the nurse, and right away she said she thought it was croup based on the sound of his cough and everything we were saying. Right away, we were feeling so much better knowing that it wasn't anything too serious, but we wanted to see the doctor to confirm and ensure that he was okay.

We had to wait for hours before we even made it out of the waiting room. Turns out it was really busy in the middle of the night. Who would have thought?

Luckily, I was able to get George to sleep for a bit on me, which I was surprised about because it was so bright. But I guess he was tired enough.

Solution and Heading Home

Finally, after waiting hours, we were seen by the doctor. He listened to George and to what we explained about his symptoms. He agreed that it did sound like croup. He said that he could give George an oral steroid medication that would be a one-time dose to help clear up his croup. We agreed to this, as we wanted to do anything we could to help George get better faster.

The doctor told us that the cool air also helps with easing croup symptoms.

All said and done, we were finally headed home at 2 a.m. It was such a long night, and we were exhausted. I told Brandon that he had to call in to work because if any of us were going to survive, we needed to both be home.

We spent lots of time outside, as that was going to help. We took turns napping so that we could be our best for George. Over the next few days, George continued to get better, but he did lose his voice for a few days.

Knowledge for the Future

Now we know what croup is and what it sounds like, so if we should ever have to deal with this again in the future, we at least know what to expect. Once we get the medication in his system, he starts to feel better. It will last a few days, and he will lose his little voice, but at the end of the day, he will get better.

Now we also know that cool air is life-changing when it comes to croup. We went outside many times in the middle of the night. Croup was scary at first, but once we understood what was happening, it wasn't so bad or hard to deal with.