Yrsa’s been nursing a summer cold for the past week or two, and a couple of nights ago she started coughing quite a bit throughout the night. Other than disturbing her sleep–and ours–however, the cough didn’t seem to be bothering her. Last night, though, around ten o’clock, she started with that barky cough that usually means croup, but can also be a sign of something worse. After she’d been at it for about a half-hour, Olof called the healthcare helpline and they told him that we should probably take her to the emergency room, just to be on the safe side.

Because Olof had to go to work this morning, I packed our girl up in the car and drove her cough-racked self to the hospital, where the diagnosis was indeed croup. After she saw a doctor, a nurse administered a breathing treatment and gave her a dose of cough medicine, as well as a bouncy ball for her trouble, and sent us on our way. The cough did get some better after all that, but it was still a pretty rough night. Except for a couple of hours, Yrsa was in our bed the whole night, restless and coughing and thrashing around. It was bad enough for me (and no doubt Yrsa), but the one I really felt for is Olof, who had to drag himself out of bed after a mere five or six hours of less than restful sleep and go to work. I suggested that he take a “sick kid” day, but since his vacation starts on Friday, he figured he could tough it out. He did get a new video game in the mail today, though, and that should cheer him up when he gets home.

Yrsa is sounding better today, thank goodness. She’s still got a cough, but it’s more of a normal-sounding dry cough than that wracking, wheezing kind that hurts just to hear. Whether or not she’s actually feeling better I can’t say, because she never seemed to be feeling too bad in the first place, as you can see: