A couple weeks ago the baby had a terrible asthma attack in the middle of a Friday night, so my husband took her to the ER. We gave her breathing treatments, to no avail, and then she spiked a fever (later taken at 101 degrees after ibuprophen and acetominophen were given). It goes without saying that it is very scary when your baby can't breathe, so my husband immediately took her to the ER at 4:30am. Her blood oxygen was 89%, so they gave breathing treatments, oral steroids and ordered a chest x-ray. They came back and said she had a 'little bit of pneumonia in her left lung', and so she would be admitted. I made it to the hospital around 8am after getting my amazing friend to stop her day and come watch the other two kids.
It wasn't until around 3pm on Saturday that a bed was finally available for us. Z was completely exhausted and still struggling to breath, so they continued breathing treatments. Once in our room we could just relax a little and Z could rest. My parents arrived for my Mom's spring break (perfect timing!) and visited us before heading to our house with the kids.
Sunday Z still didn't feel great. Her blood oxygen was still low - the goal was to keep it well above 92% - and she was really sweaty (from steroids and/or antibiotics), tired and not hungry. She was happy to have her brother, sister and grandparents visit, though.
The pediatrician finally saw us and said she may or may not have had pneumonia as it was hard to tell on the x-rays, but once the ER makes the call they have to treat it as such. She said she could have also had a partially collapsed lung. No matter what, she was really sick, and something caused the fever so antibiotics were also given. The doctor also said she's seen much worse, so I suppose that was to make us feel better.
By Sunday evening she was walking all around the floor and playing in the playroom, but still not eating. We were finally able to go home Monday afternoon, and she seemed so much better. I think the hospital grade doses of antibiotics and steroids worked wonders!
The only bad thing about the whole experience was when the ER nurse tried to put in an IV, and it didn't work leaving a huge bruise that is still healing 2 weeks later! Then they put it in the other arm, and at some time it broke loose filling up Z's arm with saline solution. I swelled up a lot and Sunday morning the nurse noticed and immediately took off the bandages and IV. It was so tight it left behind scratches on her arm. Finally, the pediatrics nurse put an IV in her left hand, which worked perfectly for the remainder of our time.
Z was such a trooper - she cried, of course, but not much. She held her mask for breathing treatments, impressing the respiratory therapists, and was as cheery and sweet as any 2 year old could be in that situation.
I had a calm feeling the whole time knowing that she was in the best place she could be. We didn't have to second guess if we were doing the right thing or not, and so I felt pretty relieved and not really stressed at all. It certainly helped that my parents were in town. Once I arrived on Saturday morning, I only left once to go home and take a shower and get some supplies, but otherwise I stayed with her the whole time.
Since then, she's been doing better than she has in a long time. We also put her on singulair to hopefully ward off any asthma triggers that are allergy related. So far so good.
I can hardly wait for the bill to arrive, but I"m hopeful our health insurance will take care of it! And, since our deductable will be met, we will be free to visit our doctor as often as we want. We've seen her so much lately it's like she's a good friend. If the baby is better after this, we may have to schedule an appointment just to bring her a coffee and say hello :-)
And, with that we add yet another notch to our parenting belt, and hope we don't have to do it again.
It wasn't until around 3pm on Saturday that a bed was finally available for us. Z was completely exhausted and still struggling to breath, so they continued breathing treatments. Once in our room we could just relax a little and Z could rest. My parents arrived for my Mom's spring break (perfect timing!) and visited us before heading to our house with the kids.
Sunday Z still didn't feel great. Her blood oxygen was still low - the goal was to keep it well above 92% - and she was really sweaty (from steroids and/or antibiotics), tired and not hungry. She was happy to have her brother, sister and grandparents visit, though.
The pediatrician finally saw us and said she may or may not have had pneumonia as it was hard to tell on the x-rays, but once the ER makes the call they have to treat it as such. She said she could have also had a partially collapsed lung. No matter what, she was really sick, and something caused the fever so antibiotics were also given. The doctor also said she's seen much worse, so I suppose that was to make us feel better.
By Sunday evening she was walking all around the floor and playing in the playroom, but still not eating. We were finally able to go home Monday afternoon, and she seemed so much better. I think the hospital grade doses of antibiotics and steroids worked wonders!
The only bad thing about the whole experience was when the ER nurse tried to put in an IV, and it didn't work leaving a huge bruise that is still healing 2 weeks later! Then they put it in the other arm, and at some time it broke loose filling up Z's arm with saline solution. I swelled up a lot and Sunday morning the nurse noticed and immediately took off the bandages and IV. It was so tight it left behind scratches on her arm. Finally, the pediatrics nurse put an IV in her left hand, which worked perfectly for the remainder of our time.
Z was such a trooper - she cried, of course, but not much. She held her mask for breathing treatments, impressing the respiratory therapists, and was as cheery and sweet as any 2 year old could be in that situation.
I had a calm feeling the whole time knowing that she was in the best place she could be. We didn't have to second guess if we were doing the right thing or not, and so I felt pretty relieved and not really stressed at all. It certainly helped that my parents were in town. Once I arrived on Saturday morning, I only left once to go home and take a shower and get some supplies, but otherwise I stayed with her the whole time.
Since then, she's been doing better than she has in a long time. We also put her on singulair to hopefully ward off any asthma triggers that are allergy related. So far so good.
I can hardly wait for the bill to arrive, but I"m hopeful our health insurance will take care of it! And, since our deductable will be met, we will be free to visit our doctor as often as we want. We've seen her so much lately it's like she's a good friend. If the baby is better after this, we may have to schedule an appointment just to bring her a coffee and say hello :-)
And, with that we add yet another notch to our parenting belt, and hope we don't have to do it again.
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