Saturday, December 20, 2014

It sucks when it's your child who is sick.

I still need that vacation. I've been at the ER since 7 AM. Not for me, for JSmiley. Yesterday or the day before she started out with a mild cough, that irritated her throat (I'm not sure if you could classify it as a legitimate sore throat as it only bothered her when she coughed). Last night she seemed to be a little off with her breathing but settled down and wasn't acting weird,  just coughing and such. Still jumping, running, playing. You know, normal hyper 3 year old behavior. Woke up around 4:30 and she was burning up and visibly breathing weird. Likeshe had to work for it. Gave her meds (for the fever) and took a bath and got dressed. She still seemed MOSTLY fine, though a bit clingy. She asked for juice and was watching a cartoon with Big Daddy but I just didn't feel right not addressing her breathing so I drove her to the ER sans bath.

In triage, they had trouble getting her vitals (except temp, it was down again) so they paged respiratory therapy and the doctor. RT gave her a breathing treatment first,  I think before the doctor even made it in. Her sats pre-neb were 90-92 sometimes dipping into the mid/high 80s. During the neb, they rose briefly to 97 but as soon as the albuteral was done,  it dropped to 94. She was also breathing hard/fast. About 40 respirations. Still sounded bad and sats wouldn't rise. They gave her an IV,  drew 3 vials of blood (no sign of infections), 2 throat swabs (RSV and Flu - both negative) and 2 xrays ("clear" - no visible pneumonia). Less than 3 hours later it was dropping repeatedly to 86-88 so they tried oxygen (hint, 3 year old don't like nasal cannulas, you have to get creative). All of the test results were fine but clearly something is wrong. They decided to admit her and added a "continuous breathing treatment " for an hour. That plus oxygen brought it up but as soon as the breathing treatment stopped and the oxygen was moved, dropped. They considered transferring her to a bigger hospital 30ish minutes away but with the minimal improvement they said they'd keep her. They gave her steroids and plus the oxygen, for a while it stayed pretty consistent in the 97-98 range.

She got saline, rocephin and potassium (with dextrose and saline) plus 2 more breathing treatments. She sounds a million times better, though I can still hear her wheezing from halfway across the room and her sats are still in the low 90s. As long as it's above 90 they say they won't give her more oxygen though which is bs. A friend of mine is an RT in NY and she's pretty outraged but apparently the staff here keep brushing it off. I will definitely be having more words with some doctors tomorrow. The nurses are just following orders. Though I'm not thrilled with the little bit of info they are forthcoming with. Just like I don't believe this is asthma, which they keep insisting, despite following it up with "but they can't/won't diagnose before 5". I just wish I knew what was wrong and how to help. She clearly doesn't feel well. Cough, sore throat, ear infection, plus whatever is messing with her lungs/breathing.

She's been such a trooper, even with the IV.  The pulseox annoys her so she keeps messing with it but the only thing she really flipped out on was the nasal cannula. She did not want that ANYWHERE near her nose/face. Anyway, its almost time for round 5 with the albuteral so, more later. I have WIFI here so I can post all day long (as long as my tablet is charged). Hopefully tomorrow brings health and clarity.

I'd post pics but they're all on my cell phone so maybe tomorrow. She's such a fighter but it's all so cute and pitiful. I just want to snuggle and love on her. She's so touched out though. Anyway. Adios.

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