Easter Sunrise

G'morning everyone.

Today, on Easter Sunday, I had the privilege of watching the sun peeking over the horizon, seeing the sky go from pitch black, to cobalt, to pale gray, to a watery, pre-dawn, hazy blue.

All of this I watched in my rearview mirror, as I drove away from the hospital, where my husband and I spent most of the night/morning with our little girl.

When our little girl does something, she gives 100%. That includes being sick. Our little one does not come down with a little cold. She ends up with RSV. She doesn't get a little cough. She ends up with bronchitis or bronchiolitis. She doesn't spit up a bit of mucous when she coughs. She coughs up giant wads of nastiness that would make a tobacco-chewing ballplayer jealous.

And now, I've learned that when she wakes up in the middle of the night, barely able to breath, a hollow whistling coming from her throat as she tries to cough the deepest cough I've ever heard, it turns out that we can add "croup" to her list of 100%.

Scared the daylights out of us. Of course, we didn't know it was croup at 2am. I'd heard of croup, but our little one had never had it. God bless the nurses and the doctor who whisked her into a room and ruled out TB and pneumonia thanks to a chest x-ray. And thank goodness I actually knew the ER doctor, who happened to be the same doctor who took care of me last year when I had a kidney stone and a massive kidney infection that ended up lasting for four months. The little one got mega-dosed with steroids to reduce the swelling in her upper airway and she was asleep before we knew it. I also appreciate the fact that the doctor warned us to be ready for a second night of it--apparently, croup has a maddening tendency to flare up for two nights, then goes along its happy way until next time.

Next time. Next time, I'll be a little better prepared for this.