Breathing Problems... Ambulance...Hospital

This is the long version with most of the details. 

Rest assured that Riley is NOW doing great!  However at around 12:00 AM on Tuesday Riley woke up coughing.  We then noticed that Riley was wheezing.  So we gad him take a few puffs on an inhaler.  (No Riley has never been diagnosed with asthma but breathing problems at least once a year with at least one of the kids is our life)  We sent him back to bed.  A little time later he got up to go to the bathroom and said he was having trouble breathing.  His breathing had gotten much worse.  It was full on strider.  "Stridor is a high pitched sound primarily on the inspiration... that can be indicative of serious airway obstruction from severe conditions."(wikipedia)  Riley had it with the inspiration and expiration.  We tried giving him the inhaler again.  As time went on he got exponentially worse.  His breathing was really getting labored and very noisy.  I told Lane to call the doctor while I got dressed so I could take him to the hospital.  I ran to the truck and put the booster seat in then went back for Riley.  By the time I got Riley to the truck he had nearly stopped breathing and he couldn't talk.  I had this sick feeling that we wouldn't make it to the hospital before he went further down hill.  I told Lane to call 911.  

The firefighters started him on a nebulizer treatment, then another one.  His respirations and heart rate were really fast but fortunately his oxygen saturation was still up.  They gave him some more steroids.  Then got him loaded on the ambulance.  He improved a bit but not much.  Then they started the 3rd nebulizer treatment.  Once we got to the hospital they did a 4th treatment.  Although he had improved he was still breathing too fast and you could still hear every inspiration and expiration.  They instead of using albuterol in the nebulizer they switched to some for of epinephrine.  That helped a lot!  He was finally staring to show some good improvements.  He was no longer laboring to breath.  Using a stethoscope to listen to him breath he was still noisy but you not so much without it.  They did a chest x-ray and some blood tests which didn't show anything.  The doctor thinks it was a viral croup.  He said he would have to stay for several hours for observation.  If he continued to improve we could go home but if he dipped down at all they would admit us into the hospital.  About 5 o'clock in the morning he took a dip.  His breathing, both in and out, got really noisy again and labored.  They gave him his 6th nebulizer treatment and some more steroids in his IV.  He kept making improvements but when they listened to him with the stethoscope he was noisy and they weren't sure he wouldn't take another turn for the worst again.  They admitted him into the hospital at that point so we got to go upstairs to a nice room in the peds unit.  Oh how I wish they had done that sooner.  I might have gotten some sleep.  At any rate, from that point on he kept making improvements.  More than 12 hours later, they released him.  Around 2-3 in the afternoon we were finally home.  

Last night before he went to bed we steamed him out in the tub for 20 minutes, gave him the inhaler, and had the humidifier going in his room.  He slept through the night with no problems.  Yeah!!  Today he was back to normal.  So Riley's out of the woods and we're so grateful for it!!