Should I take him to the doc? ER?

[meyersmama]

Ugh, the boys were exposed to RSV over Easter weekend and I thought we'd made it home free..only a couple of days ago DS1 started coughing and slowing down..yesterday was a bit worse..today he started off the day laying in daddy's chair hacking up a lung. He sounds even worse now, of course the doctor's office is closed by now and I'm sure they'll be swamped tomorrow since it's Friday and everybody tries to squeeze in before the weekend. His ear is starting to look all red, I'm guessing it's infected. WWYD? Should we run him to the ER after dinner just to get checked? I don't want to wait and have him land in the hospital with pneumonia, but I loathe doctors and hospitals. (I'm an ER med transcriptionist, I get enough of it at work)

I know there's not really anything they can give him, to a degree it needs to run it's course..and he's normally really healthy, no chest/lung problems. Baby is still fine, no sign of being sick.

Add to it that he spazzes out on routine well baby/child checkups, it's just not going to be good, lol.

[Cindi]

Do you have an urgent care anywhere? Maybe use that as a happy medium?

[cammiesue]

How is his breathing is he retracting or showing any signs of distress? If yes then take him to the ER right away.

[meyersmama]

How is his breathing is he retracting or showing any signs of distress? If yes then take him to the ER right away.

No, he's acting normal (a little slower, but he's still running up and down the halls). He's not noticably having trouble with breathing, his cough is just so productive sounding. I don't know how to describe it.

He's on medicaid and the urgent cares don't take it..for whatever reason (they say, "Oh, just go to the ER so you don't have to pay anything" :twitch:)

[Cindi]

He's on medicaid and the urgent cares don't take it..for whatever reason (they say, "Oh, just go to the ER so you don't have to pay anything" :twitch:)

Wow :speechless:

[crunchymomof3]

if he is not having trouble breathing i would wait and take him into the pedi .. does he have a wheeze .. they can not perscribe anything really but my boys had it and had icky wheezes so they gave us breathing treatments for them and that helped them to get better faster :)

[DaynaR]

Nope, doesn't sound like something that needs an ER visit to me.

If he's not in any kind of respiratory distress, and isn't completely lethargic it doesn't warrent an ER visit. At the point he's at I would just watch him for changes before even taking him to the ped.

[Amber]

the big worry with rsv is respitory distress, right?

he sounds ok to me, based on what you described. id probably take him in tomorrow for his ear though.

[meyersmama]

Good deal..I didn't want to feel like a 'bad mommy' and needed some reassurance that not taking him wasn't going to hurt him.

[meyersmama]

Hubby ran him in anyway, said he'd rather be safe than sorry, lol. They were pretty much in and out, good deal for small town hospitals! He has at least 1 side ear infection and the doc figured 2 because the other side was all crusty and gross and he couldn't see very far (which is the one I bumped and had him screamin in paid I would bet). He's got some ear drops for pain relief and some different antibiotics..I don't think his last ear infection completely went away because it's been MAYBE a month since he was last on them.
~~~~~~~
**pain not paid =/

[Jenandfam]

We spent early Christmas morning this past year in the ER with dd. Got home at 3am. She had croup and and ear infection. Fun times!