Pneumonia

Diana took Simon to the doctor on Friday after a particularly rough night with a whole lot of coughing. He's had cold-like symptoms or a week, but up until that night, he seemed to be getting much better. They did a chest x-ray after the doctor felt that his breathing didn't sound right, and sure enough, they diagnosed very early stage pneumonia.

Normally, I think I'd be freaked out by this, because it's not a good condition for anyone particularly young or old, but obviously if it were serious, he'd be in the hospital. His treatment is the pink stuff, on the assumption that it's a bacterial infection, and some kind of medication to aide in clearing up his lungs, inhaled via a nebulizer. The first time using it was almost ten minutes of horror, but he has since gotten pretty used to it. TV is a good distraction.

This morning he woke up with a fever, shivering, and I just felt awful for him, because I know what that's like. I put him on my shoulder and covered us up, and tried to get him warm enough to stop the shivering. That's the weirdest physiological phenomenon to me, that you can have a burning fever and shiver. The body is weird.

Other than that little episode, and some shivers in the tub last night, he has generally been in pretty good spirits. He's not eating particularly well, but he's drinking a lot, even without a lot of prompting. He's active, though we're admittedly throwing a lot of TV at him so he's more or less resting. Today he pushed a car around a bit, but that was the most physical play he did. I think we're mostly holding him back, which is OK.

With all of the snot and sneezing and such, the kid is a fluid mess. So are my clothes, for that matter. I've been sub-optimal today in terms of respiratory state, and I wouldn't be surprised if I suffer from something gross the next few days. I've been feeling like I'm on the edge of something for two weeks now, but not quite sick or symptomatic, just tired. I suppose if it's going to happen, it might as well be on a crappy weather weekend.

We've been really lucky with Simon. He has been a remarkably healthy kid, for the most part. I suppose pneumonia qualifies as serious, but unless he starts having a hard time breathing, he should be just fine.