Christmas is over finally over. JSmiley is doing a little better. Still coughing. Not sure how much better. She had her follow up on Tuesday, apparently by then she had a double ear infection. The ER peds doc initially missed it, the doc on peds spotted it and the ER peds doc came up and agreed. By Tuesday,her ped looked and said there was infection in both ears but no redness/inflammation. She still had a wheeze and tightness on Tuesday. We were home by 5 on Sunday with oral antibiotics, oral steroids and a box of albuterol and nebulizer.
Tuesday he said since this is the 2nd time she's needed breathing treatments (she had bronchitis that wouldn't go away when she was 1 and needed treatments since her O2 sats dropped into the high 80s then too) that they usually diagnose asthma after 3 attacks so one more. He said it most likely is asthma though. Right now they're still calling it reactive airway. It generally only happens so far when she's really sick but may have to do treatments before major activity. She didn't get any refills on the albuterol but is on a 10 day course of antibiotics with a second 10 day course waiting at the pharmacy in case the first isn't enough. Plus she has 2x/day inhaled steroids. Kind of like an asthma inhaler, only for the nebulizer. She has a 6 month supply but it's confusing me. The doc said "Indefinitely, until she's better." Which is it? If she's better by new years, discontinue? Keep going through winter? Keep going indefinitely, at least for a few years? She's already annoyed with it, even though she does so well. I'm assuming when she's old enough, if needed, it'll go from the nebulizer to an actual inhaler. Right now she doesn't really get some "inhale and hold" instructions. And if she does, getting her to follow bodily instructions when she doesn't want to is pointless. The nebulizer is much more effective at the moment.
I'll probably take her in for a recheck in a week to see if the tightness is resolved and the infection is gone. Especially if that cough isn't resolved. Anyway. I made a collage of pics from all of this since I can't effectively post multiple.
Top Row:
1. J's stats after the first breathing treatment. Her hr wasn't affected by it, it was up from respiratory distress (it was 140 here but was higher periodically). One dose of albuterol and only 92.
2. She doesn't LOOK all that bad here. She's had most of her tests, IV, blood work, etc. This is either right before or right after xray.
3. All tests done, one breathing treatment, waiting on test results. She looked so peaceful. However, she curls her fingers in sleep so her pulseox kept losing the feed and alarming. I barely got to sit down.
Middle Row:
1. Despite a breathing treatment, her oxygen starts dropping again so they give her some oxygen to help. She HATES the cannula. HATES. I had to hold it out of her nose so it blew in but the tube wasn't in. At one point I even taped it to her pacy. Which yes, she's 3. But it was a comfort for her while being used as a pincushion.
2. Exhausted after a long (half) day in the ER, finally in Pediatrics.
3. Feeling much better the next day.
Bottom Row:
1. Playing toys between breathing treatments.
2. Someone gets to go home!
3. A pro at breathing treatments
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