WALKING PNEUMONIA

James had a low grade fever Sunday afternoon/evening, but no other symptoms. And he woke up cool and calm and feeling fine on Monday, so I went to Colorado as planned, and Jay took both kids to Daycamp. After lunch, while I was boarded and about to leave Dallas for Denver, Daycamp called me to say that James was pale and complaining of a sore throat (but not feverish). I notified Jay and had them call him as well, and he left work to pick him up, ran by the doctor's office, and received a diagnosis of potential infection (maybe sinus) and a dose of antibiotics. Fever returned that evening, but stayed low. On Tuesday, James went to work with Jay and was feverish again by lunch (hence the sweatshirt he insisted on wearing outside at the picnic table, even though the heat index was extremely high), so they had to pack it in early again. By that evening his temperature had spiked to nearly 103 degrees and while I was FaceTiming with him, he sent me into a panic as he hoarsely yelled "I can't breathe! I can't breathe!" and threw the phone to the floor, then ran away crying. 20 minutes later (which felt like an eternity), Jay and my mom had talked it out and decided to give him ibuprofen and acetaminophen, and take him back to the doctor in the morning (I had been worried that they'd need to go to the emergency room and was on the other line with my dad while they figured out a plan of action). Wednesday morning, after a good listen to his lungs (which had been clear on Monday), the doctor ordered x-rays and determined that James has Walking Pneumonia. It was great to have a diagnosis and the proper medicine (including a shot in the bum that James was very proud to tell me he didn't cry about), but pretty scary that Jay had been told if he didn't respond well to the nebulizer meds or seemed to be struggling to breathe at any time, that Jay should "not hesitate to check him into the hospital". Apparently my panic was justified. And it felt horrible to be 1200 miles away and unable to hold my boy or help Jay with all this.

 Luckily, the shot helped pretty quickly and James has been doing a great job taking his nebulizer treatments. His fever dropped yesterday and has been nonexistent today. As we snuggled and watched a movie last night after I got home from the airport, James was laughing and smiling, and Jay told me with tears in his eyes that it was the first smiles he'd seen from James all week. Poor Jay had been so worried about his little man. We're all home today, resting and healing. School starts Monday and we're hoping James (and Cora, who has had a low grade fever off and on since Wednesday night, and who is now on her own dose of antibiotics) will be well enough to attend. They missed back to school night on Tuesday (obviously), but we had a friend check the class lists for us and we learned that Cora will be in Ms. Currie-Busby's class (the same teacher James had last year, whom we liked and have good communication with) and James will be in Ms. Arnold's class (the teacher that our little friend James McKenna had last year and whom we've heard is great, so we're happy).