Throughout the week his cough continued to be horrible and several times I caught him stopping to catch his breath. I could hear him breathing heavily and see his chest rise and fall when breathing. He was also moaning almost constantly in his sleep which, I believe, was an oxygen issue as well.
Last night while we were out for dinner I was watching him struggle to breathe and decided it was time to visit the ER.
His vitals were all about the same as Monday except his blood pressure was much higher this time and temp was lower...
BP:154/91
Pulse: 118
Oxygen: 90/91%
Temp:98.9*
The doctor was a youngster who, after listening to Jon's lungs, was ready to write this off as a virus. He started talking about how a virus affects the lining of the lungs and how he was going to prescribe an inhaler for him.
I was NOT satisfied with this.
I said, "he already has an inhaler and it has done nothing for his cough. I am concerned about his low oxygen levels."
The doctor looked totally puzzled...
I said, "okay so they're not terrible - but they're not normal either. There has to be some reason they are running low."
At this point the doctor relented and ordered a chest x-ray while at the same time stating, "it would be very highly unusual for someone to have pneumonia and not have a fever."
Well...that's my son...very highly unusual. He did indeed have pneumonia in his right lower lobe.
I am pretty sure if the doc ordered an x-ray on Monday it would have showed pneumonia too and would have spared him days and days of coughing.
He was given a prescription for Levequin and a stronger cough medicine that he can only take at night. During the day he needs to cough as much as possible to get rid of the pneumonia.
He wouldn't let me take any pictures of him.
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