Whooping Cough

Coughing, hacking, choking, wheezing, gasping, and "whooping".


When Paul was still a newborn I listened to a disturbing audio clip online of a baby with Pertussis, or the "whooping cough". I imagined the baby's face turning purple from the violent coughing fits, hardly having a chance to breath. I remember thinking, "what could be more frightening than watching your infant suffer through Pertussis?".

These are the awful sounds my five-month old has been making for more than a month. What started as a mild cough, slowly turned into the frightening sound I heard in that audio clip.

The first few weeks he started making that awful "whooping" sound were the scariest. During his coughing fits, which were more frequent at night, I'd ask myself, "Can he breath? Will he damage something in his delicate little body?" I felt so helpless as I held his convulsing body face-forward in case he brought up mucous or vomited, as often happened during a fit. His face would turn bright red, his eyes would bulge as his tongue protruded from his gaping mouth. Every string of coughs seemed too long for his lungs to handle, and every high-pitched gasp for breath cut my own breath short. All I could do was hold him and wait for it to pass.

Once I started to suspect Pertussis, I tried to keep him indoors and away from people more diligently. If not for others' health, than for my own dignity. There were many times when I frantically tried to cover Paul's hideous, spewing outbursts while in public, only to find every set of concerned eyes on us.

One time, while I was trying to put Paul in his car seat, a man walked around to the back of my car to tell me I was in his way and could I "please hurry it up?".  (Or so I assumed by his brisk, determined stride.) However, when he heard the rattling, gasping explosions and saw the violent ejection of vomit all over the parking lot, the man stopped dead in his tracks and watched the entire display with horror. After wiping up the resulting residue with the swiftness of recurring experience, I turned to him and said, "excuse us". The man took a step backward  and quickly replied, "oh no! don't worry about it" before rushing to the safety of his car and escaping for his life, I'm sure.

Paul acts almost normally during the day between coughing fits and, of course, he wouldn't cough in front of his doctor. That meant I had to awkwardly describe what his cough sounded like. His doctor said that Pertussis was a possibility, but that he thought it might be something else. (I've since concluded that this added remark was to temper my motherly wail of worry.) However, he didn't give me any reasons why it wasn't the whooping cough. Instead, he prescribed an antibiotic that fights certain bacteria including Pertussis "just in case". Hmm...

Those antibiotics didn't make a bit of difference... at first.

A few days ago, we started to notice an increase in Paul's energy and a decrease in the frequency of his coughs. He also slept through the night for the first time since being sick. His cough still isn't completely gone and he is still waking himself (and us) through the night, but he's not as ill as he was a week or two ago. He is still sick, however, and that makes almost two months (or two-fifths of his life) of coughing! I'm so ready for this to be over!

In conclusion, we're all managing much better than I thought we might with something this serious. It really isn't that bad now that I see he's getting better. I don't think Paul's any worse for it, in fact, Blair and I think it's made him stronger. Plus, his pediatrician said he shouldn't be contagious anymore. I certainly hope not, since we'll be seeing our families with their new babies during Christmas break. We'll keep our distance "just in case", and keep our dignity intact. ;)