So, so close...

We almost made it through the rest of the month without any "extras". We all had a cough (besides Ezra's bronchitis a couple weeks ago), but Judah seemed to be avoiding it. *sigh* It just was not meant to be. Yesterday Judah woke up with a cough and some congestion. I started stress dosing him (hydro cortisone) and using his inhaler from the pulmonologist (4x a day until no cough for 24 hr.). Then yesterday he totally surprised me by spiking a fever close to 102! This little boy is just full of surprises. I almost panicked, but then remembered that I have 3 other children who have had multiple fevers over the years, and I really did know how to handle this. It was just so unexpected coming from little "Mr. Can't Run A Fever". A half-hour later the fever disappeared just as quickly & mysteriously as it had appeared; however, I knew I needed to bring him to the pediatrician today. A chest x-ray later, and Judah is now on an antibiotic for bronchitis, as well as his inhaler. I have to admit that I feared bronchitis, because I thought it would be an automatic hospital stay for him. Praise the Lord for His protection of Judah, though, because we're home and it seems to be a somewhat mild case! It's times like these that I'm thankful for the feeding tube. I don't have to worry about waking him up to eat when he's trying to get extra sleep; and I don't have to be concerned about him not getting enough fluids if he doesn't feel like eating.

On that thankful note, I actually realized that I could be thankful for one reason that I wasn't able to breastfeed. Had I been breastfeeding Judah for the 8 months up to the time that they realized he was aspirating, I would have had to quit...like right then...and it would have been so hard to give up at that point. So hard. I'm thankful that I was able to avoid that painful circumstance!