That cough

What a day. Luis has had a cold for some time now and with it came a bit of a cough. Today his cough was horrible. It was too familiar to that dreadful week when I was told my son had cancer. After speaking with the Nurse Case Manager in London, I was advised to bring Luis into Met Hospital to get checked out. The doctor looked him over and suspects that he has mycoplasma pneumoniae, more commonly known as 'walking pneumonia'. I think it sounds worse than it is. He was prescribed an antibiotic for 5 days.

I forgot to mention that Luis had an X-ray a couple weeks ago in London. The tumour was still gone (yay!), but they noticed some inflammation in the lung, likely associated with a cough. The doctor was not concerned about it. They did not repeat the X-ray today because they didn't think it would confirm their diagnosis of the walking pneumonia and they wanted to minimize his exposure. I'm not sure I believe that he really has this walking pneumonia but time will tell. The diagnosis was primarily made on the fact that his cough has been around for a couple weeks and instead of getting better, it's getting worse.

I don't like seeing Luis like this. On a daily basis, I don't linger on the fact that Luis has cancer because he still acts like a normal kid. But today, I see how sick how looks. He is pale; he is getting really thin; he has a weak stomach; I have to run to his side with a glass of water several times a day to help stop him from throwing up. Today I saw him vomit and then continue to retch like a cat trying to bring up a hairball. It was a horrible feeling because I couldn't do much to help him except be there.

It's scary when you don't know why things are happening and what will happen next. That cough certainly makes me nervous. Let's hope the antibiotic does the trick.