My Sick Little Girl

CRAP.

Rollie came down with the cough, runny nose, low-grade fever last weekend. He still has the runny nose. Todd took care of rollie, and I manned Matilda in hopes that we wouldn't give her his cold, but she started coughing on Sat. I was at my Mom's in Warner Robins. I just figured it was a cold and kept an eye on her. I decided to come home yesterday morning, and have been keeping an eagle eye on her, esp. for the fever that Rollie had. Well, as of yesterday at 5 pm, no fever, but she was really snotty, and kind of sounded raspy when she breathed, esp when she was bf. At 7:30, she felt warmer to me, so i took her temp again. 100.7. (100.4 is the high normal.)

I called the peds answering service. They called back an hour later and wanted me to take her to the ER. So, off I go to Children's at 9pm with a sick baby in the pouring down rain. Did I mention that I also have the same nasty cold? fun.

Got to children's - first of all, they have valet parking, which is pretty cool. It is free. Went inside, and Oh.My.God. it was crowded. It was like a vision of hell, with sick, crying children EVERYWHERE. There were probably 50 or more people, at least, in the waiting room. It looked like an ER episode. I went to the desk and they did my preliminary info, gave me a number, and told me to sit down and they would call me to triage. I barely sat down before they called me back, which scared the crap out of me, that Matilda was bumped up to the front of the line in front of all those sick kids in there.

The triage nurse was really thorough, which i appreciated. They put a little pulse thing on her foot. Then they made me sit down again and again, they immediately took me back to a room. Matilda did her blowout poop about that point. Fun. I forgot an extra outfit, but luckily, it didn't get on her clothes.

Took her back, and they hooked her up to a pulse machine thingy, that kept on going off and scaring the crap out of me. matilda was crying her guts out at this time, because she was hungry, but they wouldn't let me feed her till the dr. saw her. I tried to walk her in the little room, but it was a little box, and also, she was attached to the machine thing.

Dr. came in - he looked like an older version of the intern/apprentice character who works at the funeral home on Six Feet Under. He was very nice. Listened to her breathing, etc. He said they wanted to do some tests: urine test, blood labs, and test her mucous for RSV.

he left and this other woman came in. She was some kind of welcoming committee lady, asking if i needed anything. She got me a coffee, which was nice. Nice touch, having someone wait on the parents. I held matilda while watching Larry King, until they came in. There were two of them, so I couldn't get close enough to hold her while they did their thing, which made me cry more when they did their thing. First, they suctioned her out with the saline solution and the bulby thing. Why they don't show you the saline method at the hospital, I have no idea, but it works much better than just doing the bulb. She cried her little guts out and had TONS of mucous. Then, they gave her a catheter to get the urine sample. More crying, her and me. Then, they put an iv in her hand/arm and that was it. i felt sooo bad for her. She was doing the really loud crying, interspersed with the lethal "silent scream" cry, which to me is the worst. They took a ton of blood, and then we were done. They said I could feed her, so the nurse got me a pillow and i nursed her. More Larry king. By this time, it was about midnight. I was pooped. She fell asleep.

The results came back: RSV positive. They said that they would give her a breathing treatment and if she responded, they would send an inhaler/chamber thingy home with me. If not, they would have to admit her. That scared the living shit out of me.

I gave her the treatment while she slept in my arms. It took about five minutes of the oxygen/albuterol blowing in her face. Looked like a smoke machine. Rock and roll, matilda. The dr. came in and said she sounded a little better, so he would send me home.

We ended up getting home at 3 am. I put her down at that time, and slept till about 5:30 when she got up and ate. Then todd stayed up with her and I slept for a couple more hours.

We have to call the peds office (still waiting to hear back from them) about how they want to proceed (if they want to see her every day in the office, or just have me report to them, etc.) We have to do the breathing treatments 4xday for 3 days. We did the first one this morning. Boy, she didn't like it at all. Also, should be interesting, me doing it by myself this afternoon. Todd was here for the morning one. We treat her fever with tylenol, and keep her suctioned out, esp before feedings, so she can eat well. If she has trouble keeping down BM, we can also give her bottles of pedialyte.

She is sleeping right now, and I am so worried about her. I keep checking to make sure she is breathing while she is sleeping, and then when she is awake, the coughing is just heartbreaking to watch.

Please keep my little lady in your thoughts - that her breathing improves, and we don't have to go back to the hospital.