Breathing Blues

When the kids started school this year they began on a new track. This changed all their off track times and we soon discovered that they would have the entire month of December at home. This poses problems with a mother who usually uses that month to get ready for the Christmas holidays. With so much time at home we knew we would need to find lots of activities and things to keep them busy. Ronny also had lots of vacation time left for the year so we decided to head to warmer weather and visit his parents in sunny California and to see some good friends in Las Vegas.

Two days before our scheduled departure Joseph came down with another nasty cold which we were concerned would delay us. I called the doctor to see if we couldn't get things under control to still allow the trip. Every time we go in Joseph has his pulse ox taken to see how his lungs are functioning. I forgot to tell the nurse about putting the monitor on his left hand as he is now missing his right index tip. I looked over and the stats were reading in the 70's. I then told her to change it and she looked at me as if I was nuts as the other hand wouldn't give a different number. I then told her about the missing tip and she was surprised when she went to examine it.

The monitor was moved to the other hand and the numbers came up. He was hovering around 89 which is low. I then told Joseph to hold really still to see if we couldn't get the numbers in the 90's. It finally came up but maxed out at 94. Joseph asked me what a good number was, I said 100. He asked if it was possible to go higher, I laughed. After seeing the 94 I knew we were headed for more steroids and breathing treatments. Three weeks before he had another bad cold that kept him out of school for a week and came with a full round of steroids that barely got him through it. (So far he is not starting this winter off well!) The doctor gave him the green light to travel in two days so we came home put Joseph to bed and started the packing process. (The green light came only after I told her we were visiting Ron's parents and that his dad happened to be a physician himself, gotta love having a doctor in the family!)