Caden's Miserable Doctor's Appointment

Caden has been super congested for about 3 and a half weeks now. At first we chalked it up to teething, and then he got this horrible cough. We had a friend of ours, who is a doc, look at him a week or so ago, and she said since his congestion seemed to be moving okay, that he was probably just fighting a cold and we should just keep doing the things we were doing... saline and suctioning, baby vapor rub and things like that. Well over this last week, it has just gotten worse and worse. He is still as happy as can be, and has yet to run a fever, but his cough sounded horrible, and several times he has coughed to the point of projectile vomiting. I sent his pediatrician an email on Wednesday, hoping to avoid the nurses telling me that it's just normal, and to continue what we were doing. She responded Thursday morning with an email that we needed to get in just to make sure it was just teething since he had been congested for so long, so I proceeded to call the help line to get him an appointment. Then the barrage of nurses began. I talked to several different nurses throughout the day that told me to just continue what I was doing, and one told me that I could use a decongestant. Then I received a call an hour later from the same nurse saying that the CDC has put a notice out to stop using decongestants on any child under the age of 2 because they are investigating several deaths of infants who had been given decongestants, specifically pseudophedrine (sudafed). After I asked how long I should keep doing what we were doing before really becoming concerned since we had been doing them for several weeks, and she finally said she would have our doctor call us. So finally, at 5:30, I get a call from our doctor, and she apologizes profusely that the nurses gave us the run-around when she said she wanted to see him, and while she is talking to me, Caden starts hacking his head off again. Then she asked if that was him, and she said that we might want to take a trip to the ER. I was like "What!?" So we talked for a bit, and she asked me if his breathing was labored, which it isn't, and about his color, and he was normal peachy pink, meaning he was well oxygenated, so she agreed that we could see her this morning. She was worried that he could have pertussis (whooping cough). So we went to the doc this morning, me, Carson & Caden. His oxygen levels were good, which was a relief - 95%. Then she did all of the normal check up stuff. His throat was red, but not infected. Then she checked his ears, and she had to scrape wax away from his eardrum - which she said is a normal thing for lots of kids - and it made him totally freak out, because they had to hold him down. He was thrashing about so much that it took over 10 minutes to get a good check on his ears. Thankfully, they were fine. Then she listened to his chest again. She said that at times they seemed totally clear, but then he would move and they would sound watery, so she ordered an xray to rule out pneumonia, so off we went. In order to get a chest x-ray of an infant, you have to set them into this plexiglass body cast of sorts that pins their arms up against their head and immobilizes them for the x-ray. He totally freaked...so much so, that he almost cried himself to sleep before the 2 shots were taken. I felt so bad for him. So I get him calmed down, and he's almost out by the time we get back up to the room. Then they have to do the pertussis swab, which means that we have to pin him down again while they stick a tube up his nose, flush both sinuses with saline and suck it out for a culture. He was so upset, poor guy. The pertussis test takes about a week to get the results, but hopefully it will be negative. The xray did show a small spot that looks like it could be a minor case of pneumonia, so we have him on amoxycillin now. Thankfully, it looks like its not the contagious kind, but the kind the forms after congestion or fluid is aspirated and not coughed out efficiently enough. Caden is happy as can be though, and aside from his terrible cough, you wouldn't even know he was sick. But at least now I don't have to worry for one more weekend....