Over the past few weeks, we’ve had illnesses circling through our family. This isn’t any different from any other family out there, but for us these illnesses occasionally get a bit more serious. This is because C has asthma. For him, congestion can sometimes lead to troubles breathing.

That’s the situation we were in the other night. He couldn’t stop coughing and wheezing. Over the course of the evening, we tried all our treatment techniques (nebulizer, puffer, etc.). Shortly after midnight we decided that we were out of options. We bundled him up and drove the half hour to the ER of the local children’s hospital.

During the ride there, of course, he stopped coughing and started breathing normally.

We parked in the garage, walked towards the hospital, and then stopped to talk it over. On the one hand, if he had another asthma attack on the way home, we didn’t have anything we could do. He’d maxed out on all his meds. On the other, we really didn’t want to sit in the ER for the next few hours. It’s not the healthiest place to be.

As J and I were having this discussion, the little guy was listening. I was holding him, and he interrupted us by tapping me on the shoulder. “Daddy?”

“Yes?”

“You never know where an adventure will take you, do you?”

“No. No, you don’t. Some adventures, though, you just don’t want.”

The three of us stared at each other for a little while, trying to decide what to do – and then the little guy coughed. We both looked at him and he burst out giggling. “I was just pretending.”

Needless to say, he went to the ER that night.