The Nebulizer and smoking cars

It was back to the doctors today because we are going to northern Califonia for Thanksgiving to see Boompa and Lia, so both ourselves and the doctor wanted to check Ewan's progress before we went away. Ewan had actually had his inhaler about an hour before he went to the the doctors so was not wheezing during the examination, but it has not gone away yet. In an effort to try and deliver the albuterol better he now has a nebulizer. He is very good with it while he is getting the medicine which takes about 15-20 minutes each time. However, it does require a lot of singing songs by Mom or Dad, or both, to stop him getting bored while we are doing it. Also, his favourite trick is to try and move the mask up and chew on the bottom edge or stick out his tounge and lick the moisture that gathers on the inside of the mask.

The plan is to continue to give him the albuterol every 4 hours but gradually increase the time between doses until he does not need it for the next 2 weeks. In combination with that he is also to have an inhaled steroid 2 times a day, probably for the next month and if he has not cleared up then we are to continue for the whole winter cold/flu season to try and prevent him developing another cough if he picks up another infection. While we are not happy that he needs to have steroids when he is so small, the inhaled version is definitely preferable to the systemic prednisolone he has been on for the last 5 days, as it will go directly to the source if the problem and not effect his whole body so much.

Just to make things interesting (as if we needed they to be any more interesting right now) the car started doing its own impression of a nebulizer last night and began to smoke from the engine on the journey between picking up Ewan from daycare and going to the doctors office. We just had it serviced last week and were rather miffed to say the least. Jen called Fraser at work and he had to borrow a friends car to meet up with them in the parking lot of the doctors office as soon as possible. A quick once over and it seemed the car was running very hot and the cylinders were tapping although the gauges read normal, the coolant was full, it had just had an oil change and all the fans were running. We quickly transferred all the baby stuff from our car to the second car and Jen went back to work with Ewan to rescue a timed experiment, while Fraser delivered ours to the dealer abour 2 minutes before they closed at 6pm. They were very nice and got it up on the ramp there and then. Of course the problem is nothing to do with what work they did last week. We are waiting of an official diagnostic, but it is appears to be leaking oil from the gaskets between the engine and transmission. I think in our effort to be conscientious and get both the engine oil and transmission oil changed last week, we aggravated a preexisting problem that was much more minor before the service. We appreciate all these minor dramas are just a small drop in the ocean when you look at the big picture and we'll get the car fixed. It's just irritating that we have another stress at this time when Ewan is sickly and we are trying to get ready to go away. These days, now that we have Ewan, it is like losing a limb being without a car. Thank goodness we have such good friends who are willing and generous enough help us out at time like these by doing things like lending us their car till our own is fixed. Thank goodness too that we are now flying for our Thanksgiving trip. Boompa and Lia you must have had some psychic premonition!