So here's what happened...

Thursday evening, Cooper was coughing a lot, so we checked his pulse ox on a hunch and he was satting in the low 90's/upper 80's.  So out of an abundance of caution, we put him on a touch of oxygen.  He went to his doctor appointment and school on Friday and was fine.  His OT even told me that he had a really awesome therapy session with her Friday afternoon.  That evening, as we were putting him to bed, he felt a little warm.  So we checked his temp and he had barely a fever: 101.5.  So we gave him some ibuprofen and put him to bed without a worry in the world.  At about 10:15, after the Olympic torch was lit, I went into Cooper's room to give him his bedtime medicine.  He was moaning in his sleep and was really hot.  We checked his pulse ox and he was sating in the mid-80's and his heart rate was in the 160's and 170's.  Yikes.  So we gave him tylenol and turned his oxygen up to 2 liters.  Even on 2 liters, he was grunting as he breathed and his sats weren't getting into the mid-90's.  So we turned him up again... to three liters.  Still nothing.  That's when we decided to call 911.

As all of this was going on, snow was falling.  It snowed from 5 until 11 that night.  Then again for an hour or so in the early hours of the next morning.  There were reports on Facebook of 30 car pile-ups, intersections being uncrossable, cars abandoned in the street, people walking a mile to get home, buses sliding into cars, etc.  We just didn't feel comfortable driving Cooper to the hospital.  We have small, portable oxygen tanks, but running at three liters they wouldn't last long.  What if something happened and we ran out?  No.  Too scary to even think about, so we called for an ambulance.  And I will say this about Little Rock's emergency services, they were FAST.  I mean, it took them maybe five minutes to get to us.

Brad went to the hospital with Cooper and I stayed with Semmes.  Obviously this was necessary, but it broke my heart.  Semmes, for his part, slept through all the drama.   Thank goodness.  Saturday was my birthday, so that was no fun.  I've decided I get a do-over.  We're just going to pick another day and have it be my birthday.  Cooper came home yesterday afternoon.  He was SO excited to be leaving the hospital and was so happy to be home.  He's still on oxygen and antibiotics.  Tomorrow we'll start doing CPT with him to help him get all the gunk out of his lungs.

As long as he has his giraffe, he's good.

Waving to me

He's so glad his daddy is with him.