Racing through Oxygen, Roads, Medicine, Time

When things aren’t going well, it’s logical to think that they could only get better. The post on last Monday recognized the day’s difficulty but professed that “tomorrow would be another day.” And so it was. But that day Niko didn’t get any better either, still had a fever, and then, Wednesday night, around 11:45pm, alternated the barking cough of croup with wheezy inhalations, and it wasn’t going away. Tomorrow was another day, but not exactly in the way we were hoping. He’d had croup before, but this time was much worse than any other and our attempts to calm it at home were not working. Niko wasn’t getting enough air. 

            I’ve become a more aggressive driver over here, but at that time of night there were few other motorists to challenge my path. Suddenly very focused, we sped to the hospital in about six minutes when during the day it would take fifteen to twenty. We rushed right into the ER and the little boy was quickly given an oxygen mask with adrenaline. Of their six categories of severity he was put on the next to highest.

            I don’t want to dwell too long on that night, or on the fact that he has stayed sick for quite a few days after that, too, or that on the following Friday I got hit with the flu after a couple of weeks with a sinus infection. We set up a visit to Rome awhile ago and so it’s been a countdown to see if Niko and I can get better enough fast enough to make the trip, now two days away. I continue to be impressed with our pediatrician, who during Niko’s latest checkup to gauge the progress of his lungs also listened to my own health story and wrote me a prescription! Che bello!

             More and more tourists are visiting Lucca these days, the weather is getting sunnier and warmer, magnolias are in bloom and the pollution seems less oppressive than in the winter. So much to see and do and our time left is drawing short. We always would say, “oh, we’ve got plenty of time to do X,Y,Z”  but now, with three months to go, we realize that we can’t do everything, that our time is limited and choices must be made. In Italy for a year without visiting Rome? It would be a bit strange. So here we go, to the capital, possibly to return with plenty of stories and pictures to post. Isn’t it fascinating, as the sun sets, wondering in what ways “tomorrow will be another day?” Anything is possible.