Jameson Caught my Cold and now how to use a Nebulizer.
Jameson and Bea both caught a bad cold I have and I’m still feeling bad about it. We had to take him to the doctor and he was given a prescription for cough medicine and a nebulizer with a saline solution. While Jameson was in with the doctor, Bea sent me a picture of him with the mask on, and I have to say it was so heartbreaking to see my baby boy like that. I’ve said it before, but I don’t know how parents of sick children can handle seeing their kids like that? I know it is heartbreaking for them, but how they don’t just break down shows so much strength that I don’t have.
After Jameson’s treatment, we headed home with two prescriptions and a phone number for a medical device delivery company, so we could get our own nebulizer. We dropped off the two prescriptions at Walgreens on the way home to get our little dude wrapped up and try to get him better. The day before, I picked up a Vicks humidifier, which is awesome by the way, it has these methanol inserts to help clear your nasal passages, much like the Vicks vapor rub would do. I also picked up these saline drops that were supposed to help break up the mucus build-up Jameson had. The drops did not work all that well, but the humidifier was seeming to help, his puffiness was starting to go away after about 30 minutes of the machine on. I was also hoping this machine would help Bea and I start to feel better as well. I commented on how quiet the machine was, and Bea was like yeah it’s a little quieter than the other one. I was so stuffed up that I barely heard it, I honestly thought it wasn’t making any noise. After an hour or so, I blew my nose and my ears popped, and then I could hear the humidifier and felt a little embarrassed because it was not as quiet as I had previously thought.
To get the nebulizer, we were supposed to get a phone call from a company to set up the delivery a few hours after Jameson’s appointment. Well, we never heard from them. And guess what, the sticky note we left the doctor’s office left was missing, and neither of us could remember for the life of us what the company was called. So we had to wait until the next day to give the doctor’s office a call and hope they could get it for us. Well, that didn’t go as planned either. We called about 7:30 am and talked with the desk nurse, who could not find the notes, so she was going to leave and note for the doctor and was told they would give us a callback. We waited until 3:30 pm, with no callback, to try again. This time Bea left a message with the medical advice line and we waited maybe about 45 minutes and we got a callback. They had called the company and were told that they had been trying to call us all day. Well, we never got any calls on either of our phones. So after getting the number from the nurse this time, Bea gave these people a call and was told that the person we needed to talk to was on break. The person was still on break two and a half hours later when Bea called again to complain. Luckily this time the lady on the phone said she would just go ahead and help us out and the nebulizer would be delivered in four hours.
The nebulizer showed up about an hour later, but Jameson was already asleep so we decided to wait until the morning to give him the first at-home dose. The next morning we set up the machine and wrestled with Jameson to get the face mask on him. And seeing him with that on for the first time in person was hard. He looked so miserable, and not because he is sick. But eventually, he calmed down and was able to take in all of the saline solutions to help loosen up all the gunk he had built up in his lungs and sinuses.
After his second session, Bea wanted to try this FridaBaby Nasal Aspirator. If you’re not familiar with this product, it is basically a straw attached to a strainer that fits into the baby’s nostril. So what you do is stick the funnel into the nose and suck out the snot with the straw, it sounds disgusting. They have a “filter” but it’s just a piece of foam and I didn’t have a lot of faith in its ability to stop the snot from being sucked into my mouth. Well, the FridaBaby works like a charm. The snot does not come up into the straw and it does exactly what it says it does. Jameson doesn’t really seem to enjoy it, but I can imagine it’s not the best feeling having your snot sucked out of your sinuses. But I highly recommend this product to any new parent, once you get past the grossness your baby will thank you. The nasal aspirator comes with a saline solution, but we haven’t tried that out yet.
In the end, all of the treatments Jameson is going through, even though it’s tough to see, are working great. Most of the day he can breathe without difficulty and when he is having trouble the nebulizer and aspirator help remedy that issue.
If you are interested in one for yourself or as a gift for a new parent you know, you can follow the link below for more information or get one.