"Love follows knowledge."
"Beauty above all beauty!"
– St. Catherine of Siena

Tuesday, August 9, 2016

Personal Note: Matthew’s Pneumonia

Wednesday (August 3rd) evening I noticed Matthew felt hot to the touch.  I took his temperature and while I now don’t remember what it was, it was elevated..  We held him back from camp on Thursday, and he still had fever, and so Friday my wife took him to the pediatrician.  He had fever there too but no other symptoms, no strep throat, and so they assumed it was just a viral infection.  They don’t give you anything for that any more.  They don’t want people getting immune to antibiotics, so they have reduce the usage.  They sent Matthew home without any prescription, just told to alternate between children’s Tylenol and children’s Motrin to keep the fever down.

His fever was somewhat under control, but Saturday night it skyrocketed to 103.7 degrees and my wife wanted to take him to the Emergency Room.  I dissuaded her, arguing they’re not going to do anything there either.  I said that if it reached 104 degrees than we would go.

It came down and for most of Sunday it was reasonable, though above normal.  Then Sunday afternoon it spiked up to 104.3, and at that point we decided to go to the E-R.  At the hospital, Matthew again didn’t seem to have any other symptoms, and the doctor was about to release us when on intuition he decided to send Matthew for a chest x-ray.  Well, x-ray showed a good size pneumonia in his lower left lung, and so we got to the bottom of it.  He prescribed Matthew an antibiotic.

Matthew’s temperature was still going up and down, again spiking over 104 degrees, but coming down.  Today (Tuesday) he had a follow-up with the pediatrician, and she now only heard the pneumonia in the left lung, but said he developed it in his right lung as well.  So she then doubled up on the antibiotic and Matthew has to breathe with a nebulizer three times a day.  Today the fever has been close to normal all day.  I think we’re over the hump, but I’m still guarded.

Here’s a picture of Matthew with his kangaroo nebulizer.  LOL, they’ll do anything to make kids enjoy their medical treatments.





Your prayers for Matthew are certainly welcomed. 

13 comments:

  1. That's too bad. Back in the day (before the unaffordable care act) an xray would have been done sooner. I think it's criminal what's happened to medicine. Hope he gets feeling better soon.

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    1. Yeah and given antibiotics as a precautionary medicine. Seems like they're taking chances now.

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  2. Praying for Matthew and for you all at this difficult time. Please God he gets better soon.

    God bless you and your family, Manny.

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  3. Some atheist say that those kangaroo nebulizer can work miracles... LOL

    I know that Pneumonia is nothing to joke about... as a matter of fact and long story short, my parents lost a six month old son to Pneumonia and then mom gave birth to me in 1946.

    Thank you God for taking care of Matthew and his parents.



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    1. Ah, that's too bad about your brother. You're right. this is more serious than has dawned on me. Matthew's got double pneumonia, and that's pretty serious.

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  4. OK let's set some things straight LOL. What was stated above was accurate except for the fact that by Sunday afternoon I said "that's it, we're going like it or not".

    I think the ladies here will agree with me that for the most part a mothers intuition is never wrong and I felt Matthew's illness was something more just didn't know what it could be.

    If we didn't go to the emergency room on Sunday we would never have known he had pneumonia. I would have waited out the time frame the initial doctor said and called back. My instincts saved us 2 additional days of not knowing.

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    1. I said 104 was the cutoff. When it hit 104 we went to the ER. I'm an engineer. I need some sort of metric.

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    2. Nurse Jan, that know-it-allAugust 11, 2016 at 12:45 AM

      Damn skippy, Rochelle! Your instincts take precedence over Manny's metric, and ftr.....THIS nurse would never wait for her kid's temp to hit 104!! You can't let things get that far out of hand.

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  5. I'm sorry to hear he is not feeling well. I had it years ago and had a difficult time breathing or even having enough breath to walk a few feet. I hope he recovers quickly!

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  6. You have my most heartfelt wishes and prayers. Pneumonia is an illness that, while tragic, should be held off for the elderly; it shouldn't strike such a young, hopeful individual as your son. Hopefully Matthew will make it out of this toil unscathed and this whole mess will mark an ending point to your pediatric medical worries. I'll pray hard.

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    1. Thank you so much Marco. He's doing very well, and he may be completely recovered at this point. Matthew has a doctor's appointment tomorrow.

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