ER

Last night Daddy and Mummy took me to the Emergency Room. I only had a runny nose this weekend, but when the winds changed and the humidity dropped to 10% I got really sick. We were lucky that I didn't get really bad until around midnight, not only did it allow us all to get a little bit of sleep, but I think we missed the crazies, too. We were, after all, going down to Sunset Blvd on Halloween.

The nurse that was taking care of me was Vilma. She was very nice but she didn't seem to understand that I did not want a probe on my finger to monitor my heartrate. I fought it fiercely. But she saw me trying to pull it off so at least when she saw the machine go all over the place with my pulse she didn't worry. She tried to put me on oxygen but I spent way more oxygen taking off the mask and fighting everyone than I received from the mask. She tried to give me some medicine -- that was gross, but I swallowed most of it. She tried to put another mask on me that was attached to a humidifier, and I fought that, too.

The Doctor, Dr. Yoo, was also very nice. He explained that the dry air made my mucus from my cold even thicker which left less room for air in my tubes and that's why I was making such funny animal noises when I coughed. He called it bronchiolitis.

Daddy and Mummy really tried to get me that moist air to help me breathe better and feel better. I didn't like the mask and I didn't like cold, wet air being blown in my face. It was the middle of the night, I was in a strange place with strange noises and bright lights. The last thing I wanted was more annoyances. Finally Mummy held me and sang me songs while Daddy held the tube near my face (he had taken off that dreadful mask), and I dozed off.

I must have really been asleep because the next thing I knew the Doctor was waking me up to listen to my breathing and Mummy and I were on the bed. Poor Daddy was trying to get comfortable in the chair beside the bed. Dr. Yoo said I was sounding so much better and he told us we could go home. As we left the hospital I coughed and four different nurses within earshot all said, "croup." It was four in the morning. We didn't see any Halloween revellers, but we were too tired to notice; for all I know they may still have been out.

After Daddy dropped us off at home he went to Rite Aid to buy a humidifier for home, and finally he went to bed sometime after five.

We are pretty tired today, but we are doing better. I don't sound like a zoo and I'm catching up on my sleep. The humidifier is very nice and it even sounds like our own little water fountain and white noise machine in one. The doctor has me taking some steroids for the next couple of days; it helps to keep my tubes clear and not too tight. Daddy says he's going to go buy me some weights so we can make the most of my steroids.