A Late-Night Scare

We had a bit of a scare the night I arrived home from Germany. We drove from the airport to church (our church meets on Saturday evenings) and then went to a friend's house for dinner. Since both Al and Josiah our allergic to our friend's cats, they both took some allergy medicine on the way there. Both made through the evening without any allergic reactions and we had a really nice time.

We got home later than usual and since I had been up since the equivalent of 11:00 p.m. the day before, Al put the kids to bed while I got ready for bed myself. I quickly fell asleep. At around 2:00 a.m. I woke up to the sound of Josiah coughing. It sounded like he was getting ready to throw up. So I threw myself out of bed and stumbled (literally) to his room.

"Josiah, are you okay? Are you going to throw up?" I whispered.

"No" Josiah croaked.

"What's wrong?"

"I don't know" he managed between hacking coughs.

As I listened to him I realized he was wheezing when he breathed. When he sat up in bed I saw that he was still in the shirts and pants he had worn all day. When we get home late, we sometimes put Josiah to bed without putting his pajamas on, which usually isn't a big deal. The problem was that his clothes were full of cat hair and Josiah was clearly having a serious allergic reaction.

Josiah refused to take his allergy medicine because he doesn't like the taste. I woke Al up, partly so he could help and partly so someone else could worry with me. Josiah was still coughing and wheezing a lot and I was beginning to worry about him. Okay, I woke up worrying about him, but now I was seriously considering taking him to the E.R. What if he was having an asthma attack? He hasn't been diagnosed with asthma, but Elijah had issues with "wheezing" last year and Josiah's coughs sounded similar to when Elijah had difficulty catching his breath.

We changed Josiah into clean pajamas and took the sheets off his bed. Al threw everything into the washing machine while I sat listening to Josiah's breathing. He didn't sound any better so I decided to take him to the emergency room. I quickly changed into jeans and a sweatshirt and told Josiah that he needed to see a doctor. He Josiah fought me all the way downstairs sobbing, "I don't want to go to a doctor in the middle of the night!"

He finally agreed to take some allergy medicine and I agreed to wait and see if his breathing improved. A half hour later he seemed to be okay. We trudged back upstairs and settled Josiah down in a sleeping bag in our bedroom. I put my pajamas back on and slipped into bed. I listened intently to Josiah's breathing, which was beginning to sound normal. When I was satisfied that he was okay I closed my eyes and got some much needed sleep.