We had a chance to test the route to the hospital last night.

Alden has a bad, barking cough that started Sunday and worsened Monday night. I took him to the doctor to get checked out early yesterday morning, and all was well (no fever, no breathing issues, still an energetic 3-year-old). The doctor said it was the croup and gave me a few tips on how to manage Alden's symptoms. He even said, "If he's like this when he's sick, what's it like when he's feeling good?" Alden had that much go-power still.

In the afternoon, Alden suddenly took an immediate turn for the worse. It was like someone flipped a switch that sent him from coping well to terribly ill. He gasped for breath and struggled to play with his trucks. Every time he tried to stand up, he'd lay right back down again. He was also shaking and his eyelids drooped. It was sooooo scary.

I called the on-call doc, and he sounded alarmed when he heard Alden's coughing and breathing. He told me to bring him in right away. So that's what we did. They worked him through triage and into the urgent care facility fairly quickly. He had a nebulizer treatment with epinephrine (which sent his heart rate over 200 beats per minute - another scary moment) and some steroids. He also spiked a fever while we were there, but they were able to get it down with just a little Tylenol.

All told, we were there for about three hours, which isn't bad for an ER visit. They checked him over again before discharging us. His breathing had eased and his temp was down, but I think the real reason they felt he was ready to go home happened when he started to run circles around the bed. He was definitely feeling better!