Robert's turn

Took Robert to the doctor for difficulty breathing yesterday *sigh*

Breathing treatment, chest x-ray, and sent home with 3 prescriptions:

--Albuterol (nebulizer version, administered every 4-6 hours to open airways immediately and frequently, meaning he has to stay home from school one day for these treatments)

--Oral steroids (truly bitter pills, to be taken twice a day to keep airways open through longer-term mechanisms)

--Antibiotic (liquid but not your typical pink goo, bitter as all getout, once daily to combat what looked like the beginnings of pneumonia in one of his lungs)

Robert cannot abide bitter medicine. It took him, me, and a very patient and firm Bobby an hour and a half to successfully get 2 pills and 8.5 mls of bitterness into Robert's gut. An hour later, he woke up in bed intensely nauseous and emptied his stomach contents onto his bedroom floor...including the 8 fl oz of bright red fruit punch he chugged to get the medicine taste out of his mouth. It reeked of the antibiotic syrup, but there was nothing to be done. 

I'm not to the point of pulling my hair out yet, but I'm more than a little weary. I've caught the kids' cold, too, leaving energy for only the most essential tasks. The house is kinda falling apart around me. But, thanks to Robert being home and breathing better today, he's kept Matthew entertained while I oscillate between cleaning something up and staring off into space.

Days like these make the other days so much nicer :)

The pneumonia diagnosis was not 100% clear, so the APN we saw yesterday suggested I call in again this afternoon once an MD has had a chance to have a look. I'll let them know how the antibiotic went last night (ugh) and maybe they'll have another option/idea. Fingers crossed they nix it altogether.

[UPDATE: I called to follow up on the chest x-ray. It is absolutely pneumonia and the nurse was pretty distressed that Robert threw up his first dose. I explained the difficulty we were having getting Robert to take the medicine. She suggested ice cream. I think my bitter guffaw might have caught her off guard. After some discussion, she decided to investigate further and explore this with our pharmacist to see if she couldn't finagle some sort of pill form instead. Forty-five minutes later, the new prescription was sent to the pharmacy. Pills. Still a painful chore for Robert, but so much better than a liquid...or IV antibiotics. Ugh.]

Robert snuggling a toad they found in our vegetable garden yesterday. Alice was the one who caught it, Robert and Matthew found it fun, but James was the one who claimed it as his own dear love.