adventure at the Dr.'s office

So we had quite an adventure yesterday at the Dr.'s office.  Here's the story...

LM had a cough less than 2 weeks ago.  The cough sounded worse at night and in the morning and was tight sounding to me.  It made me nervous, so I took her in.  The Dr. said that she looked fine, but to make sure that the cough didn't turn into croup and get worse, he sent us home with some medicine (a steroid).  The cough got better and life went on.

Yesterday LM started coughing again - the same tight sounding cough.  So just to be safe I took her to the Dr. again.  Just a side note, I also took the other kids too.  At the Dr.'s office once again LM looked fine except for tiny signs of a cold (the same cold that Jon, CJ, and myself have).  The Dr. wasn't sure why her cough was sounding that way and he didn't want to send us home with more steroids, so to be safe he sent us to the lab for x-rays.  We had to get x-rays of LM's chest and neck.  Have you ever seen how babies get their chest x-rayed?  Not pleasant.  I of course did not take pictures because my hands were full trying to comfort LM and actually get the x-rays, but this is what she pretty much looked like.

photo found online - NOT our baby girl

But LM is skinnier and she was screaming like mad and fighting us so hard.  She actually got her arms behind her head and then her head was wedged up against the hard plastic sides hard enough to get red welts on the side of her head. (LM wasn't in her contraption quite as tight as shown in the picture above - probably because she was wiggling so much)

kind of hard to see, but there is a red welt on the side

I know, I know, but the story keeps going.  So the radiologist and the Dr. couldn't conclude that what was showing on the neck x-ray was okay.  There was a spot that looked a little swollen.  So to make sure that LM really was okay and that she could breathe fine and all of that, we were sent upstairs to an ENT.  He was going to stick a camera up her little nose and down her little throat to get an inside look.  So I held her on my lap with a nurses help while the Dr. did this.  Of course LM didn't like it, but it wasn't the first time she has had something stuck up her nose and down her throat - it's just been awhile.  And guess what, the ENT didn't see anything except a little sore throat.

So, the good news is that after everything our precious little girl was put through... she is just fine.  Apparently LM just has a tight sounding cough.  According to the ENT, the cough sounds tight to me, but it physically is NOT tight.  So that's a relief.  And would you know it, after all that trauma, LM was just fine and acted like her normal self once we got home.  I expected her to fall asleep in the car (which she did) and stay asleep.  But when we got home she was ready to play and eat dinner.  She is such a tough little one!

When we got home I just kept thinking, if only I wasn't such a paranoid mother, LM wouldn't have had to go through all of that.  But I guess it's better to be safe than sorry.