For all of you who have a child with asthma I want to first apologize for ever - if only in my head - minimizing the terror that is seeing your child unable to breathe effectively. Honestly I had no idea how scary it could be.
This week Abbie had a minor cold - runny nose - not green. (Isn't it purely disgusting how mothers seem to have no problem discussing gross bodily fluids in their children? Probably because we deal with them All.The.Time.) But I digress. Thursday morning she had a slight cough and I barely decided to skip play group and hoped we wouldn't infect anyone. That night after my class, Russ told me the cough had gotten a little worse and started to sound croupy.
At 4:00 A.M. when he went in to check on her (Yes Russ is wonderful. He takes Abbie at night and I take Savannah.) he said that her breathing sounded labored and fast. We pulled out the baby book, called the poor pediatrician on call and ended up giving her an albuteral dose in the nebulizer - then back to bed.
At 8:00 A.M. her breathing had increased to 60 breaths a minute (For those of you who that means something to. Before Friday it would have meant nothing to me.) It didn't change after another nebulizer dose and the nurse told us to forgo the doctor's and head straight to the emergency room. Twelve hours later and after being admitted to the hospital - her breathing finally slowed slightly and sixteen hours after that we were home with a bag full of drugs for every occasion - we have daily drugs, hourly drugs, and drugs in case of an emergency.You would think we were either a pharmacy or a Colombian drug cartel.
We are still figuring out when things are good, okay, and desperate. We have several extra pages to add to Abbie's already detailed list of things to be aware of when watching her. Poor kid.
7 comments:
Poor Abbie, and poor mom & dad! Maybe this means Savannah will be allergy- and asthma-free! (Knock on wood)
I'm glad that she is doing better. How scary. You guys are great parents. Way to be on top of things.
So scary Em. I'm glad she is doing better. I am glad you got to stick your foot in your mouth...at least that made for an entertaining story...
Asthma is so scary. I'm glad they got her breathing rate back down and under contol. Allie is on daily singular, and we havn't had an attack in months... knock on wood.
Sorry that Abbie really does have asthma. Ben is available for any future questions you may have. Also, don't feel too bad about what you said about the doctor. ALl people in the medical profession understand that sooner or later someone won't like them, and we are ok with that, but it is a good story.
Oh my goodness, I totally feel for you! It seems like it always hits right in the middle of the night, too. And for Sydney, she went into full-blown asthma attack so fast, that we always ended up in the hospital. After that first year, we ended up on a daily medication, which she was on for a couple of years - a steroid to make her lungs strong. But now I don't ever give it to her. And we haven't had any asthma problems for a LONG time. I just watch out for when she gets a cold. And now she's old enough that she can tell me if her chest feels tight or if she's having a hard time breathing. I almost forget she has asthma now.
How scary! I swear kids should come with an owner's manual. I'm glad she's okay and as an asthma sufferer, I know that she'll learn to live with it and everything will be okay. Love you guys!
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