Scary Noises

Saturday night, around 10:00 pm, we heard it--the sound that has the ability to stop both the Mad Scientist and I dead in our tracks. I looked at him and I could see the fear quickly envelop his entire being. The tension and stress in the air could be cut with a knife.

Are you wondering what noise could cause such a reaction? Was it the sound of breaking glass or a crackling fire? Was it the sound of sirens blaring or an animal knocking something over outside?

No, the noise was a simple cough, heard over the baby monitor.

We are not overly protective parents by any means. We do not chase after our children with clorox wipes. And, as any regular readers know, both kids attend school and day care, chock full of germy kids with questionable hygiene practices (they are kids after all).


Yet, we totally freak out when we hear the Dancing Queen cough.

We didn't start out this way.  If she coughed, she coughed. We treated it like we treat TRex's coughs--a simple cold that would lead to runny noses, but would go away in a couple of days. No big whoop. But, we've become jaded over time. Or are we more realistic?

Either way, we know that all too quickly a cough can turn into something more. We've seen a fever take her from a normal kid to almost intubated in a matter of hours. And 10 day stints at the hospital usually start with just a cough.  Even without hospitalization, with each bug, DQ takes one more antibiotic and inches herself closer to the day none of them work any longer.  (I counted, since this day last year, DQ has had 27 courses of antibiotics, well over 200 days.)

I'm happy to say that Sunday, she was fine, save some blood in her ear (normal for her).

This morning, she did wake up coughing and complaining of chest pains, so she stayed home from school and saw the doc. It "appears" as though we caught the bug quickly. Hopefully, course 28 of antibiotics for the year will take care of it.  Until the bug is gone though, the Mad Scientist sit here waiting for the other shoe to drop. We try not to worry, but we've been burnt too many times before.