LONG 2 days--probably TMI!

I'm sorry I've been completely non-existent in the blog world lately. I actually did a cool breakfast cooking/freezing thing that I took pics of, but then life happened and I haven't blogged. Spring break was a good week, we went to my 10 year high school reunion on Friday 3/13, spent lots of good time at home together, Wednesday took a day trip to Corpus to show Micah off to family, and then Friday/Saturday hit. The kids slept horribly Wednesday night after returning to town. Thursday, they started runny noses and Cara was coughing. We took them to the doctor on Friday and were told both had bronchitis. Micah was prescribed Zithromax (his first ever antibiotic), which is normally what Cara gets, since she's allergic to Penicillin. We asked the doctor, then later called and made sure via the nurse that the new antibiotic Cara was prescribed was not penicillin, and they both assured us it wasn't. She had a dose on Friday and Saturday, and still coughed/runny nosed, but seemed fine. We went to a good friend's (hi Adrienne!) wedding on Saturday night and had an absolute BLAST!! My mom was able to come into town and watch the kids....poor her. We texted throughout the evening and she said Micah was super fussy, and Cara would not stop coughing. She kept waking herself up. We got home around 10, and on top of the bronchitis, she was constipated. She kept screaming that her tummy hurt, so we gave her some pedia-lax (this is around 1:50 or so) and after that she would sleep for about 20-30 minutes, then sit straight up screaming (for Daddy) that she had to go, and had the runs all night. Around 2 or 3 am I noticed her breathing was very labored. So I couldn't sleep when she was, because I was worried about her. I prayed and thought and decided to call the pharmacist, since it was 24 hour. They said that the drug was a 2nd generation penicillin and to stop it right away (she hadn't had a dose since 1 pm) and give her Benadryll. We had none, so Eric went to Walgreens to get some (poor guy, at 4:30 am).


She didn't seem to get better with the breathing, but she did sleep better after the benadryll. We all slept on and off (between potty breaks) until 9, then my mom had to go home. I called her pediatrician and she said to give her one more dose of benadryll (at 9:30) and if it didn't get better, to go to the ER. She assured me the antibiotic was not penicillin, and that this didn't sound like an allergic reaction, but may be her lungs worsening from the bronchitis. She and Micah fell asleep about 10:30, so we let her sleep while we gathered a bag together of snacks/diapers/clothes just in case. When she got up, she was still bad, so we headed to Katy Mermorial Hermann. I walked in with her while Eric and Micah parked the car. I sat right down and asked how long this was going to take because she was having trouble breathing and if it was going to take long, we'd go to Christus. They lifted her shirt, saw how bad she was laboring (retracting) and took us right back. They put a thing on her finger to check her O2 and she was at 91, supposed to be at least 100. So they called for a chest Xray and respiratory to meet us in the triage for continuous Nebulizer treatments of albuterol.

She was on continuous Nebs for 3+ hours. Her O2 got back up to around 95, but only with continuous meds. They ruled out pnemonia, her chest xray was clear. They said since she's not getting better, and gets worse when she's not on the meds, they needed to admit her, but they didn't want to do it in Katy because if she got worse, they'd rather treat children at the Hermann Children's hospital downtown. So, we waited for an ambulance transport. I was about to take Micah home to gather more things, when they came in to give Cara an IV (which they ended up not using the WHOLE time!), and Eric did not want to be left alone with that. That was the hardest part of this whole ordeal, besides seeing your little girl sick. They wrapped a sheet around all parts of her except her left arm, basically to hold her down, and it took 3 of us to hold her arm straight so she wouldn't yank her arm away while they did the needle. It was awful.

After that, we waited for the ambulance. Eric went with her and I followed in the van with Micah. Eric called me to tell me where to park and said she was happier in the ambulance (aka fire truck to her) than she'd been all day. He said he could tell she felt better. They gave her one last neb treatment in the ambulance, and that was her last one. Once we got settled in the room, they came in and said her O2 levels were stabilized. She was staying around a 95-96 on her own. This hospital was so much nicer! The people, the rooms, etc. The ER nurse that checked us in made us feel like such awful parents. I'm like, I have asthma, I know how hard it is when you're trying to take a deep breath and can't, that's why I brought her in and didn't wait around any longer than I did. That, and I prayed all night about what we should do and felt at peace the whole time. I only cried one time and poor Luke Pearson got the brunt of it. I was trying to find someone to watch the dogs, and he answered the phone. I think I scared him off for good ;).

All our family came up to see her, so she was distracted all evening. Oh yeah, and the ER wouldn't let her have food OR WATER the whole time we were there. The ambulance guys let her have water, so she downed a sippy cup full then, and another when we got to the new hospital, so she finally started having wet pull-ups. And once we were settled, they let her have all the food she wanted, so my parents had brought us Wendy's, so she ate half my chicken sandwich, then Papa went and got her ice cream, which she downed. They started her on albuterol inhalers, 4 puffs every 3 hours. She did really well with them, with everything!! They ended up moving her from floor 9 (more critical) to floor 10 (less critical) at around 8pm. We packed all our junk up, and I waited for one more inhaler treatment at 9. Once that happened, she was restless (aka SUPER tired), so I went home with Micah to try to catch a few winks (they would have let both of us--parents--stay, but not Micah, and when you're nursing, well you know). Eric called and said she went to sleep around 9:30 and he was heading there too.....that was the last I heard until I got to the hospital at 6 am on Monday. Oh yeah, Micah woke up at 12:15, 3, and 4:30, (this is EXTREMELY unusual for him, I chalk it up to a long day in the hospital, and a runny nose when he lays down), so at that point, I got up, took a shower, fed him, got gas in the car and missed all the traffic!! I walked in at 6 and asked the nurse how she did. Eric and C were still asleep, so Micah and I dropped some stuff in the room and went and waited for them to wake up. I went in at 7, and had just missed the doctor!!



Here's the recap of overnight. She fell asleep around 9:30. Eric said around 10:30 they came in because her O2 had dipped to 87, which they expected. They said with having so many treatments that day, they expected it to dip at night, especially because it lowers anyways when you sleep. So they put her on oxygen, the two little tubes in your nose. Well that went over well. He said the rest of the night was her sleeping around 20-30 minutes, then waking up and rubbing her face and him having to calm her down and tell her she couldn't take it off. They gave her a treatment around midnight, and around 3:30 or 4. He said she slept really well from 4-6:30 or so when the doctor came in, except when I woke her up briefly when I got there. They took her off the oxygen at 6:30 when the doctor came in, and she perked up a little. Here is a picture of her and Micah after the oxygen was removed.





She had been hooked up to all the stuff from noon on Sunday, until 9 am on Monday with only a 5 minute break to look out the window Sunday evening. She had been sitting in bed and was beyond restless....here is her watching Nemo on our laptop (they had tv/dvd player there, but nemo kept messing up).



Since she had been so good, we asked if she could be taken off the monitors for a little while so she could go play in the play area that opened at 9. Boy was she excited to say the least, its better described like she was running around like a chicken with it's head cut off!!! Here are some very happy pictures of Cara:



Her cute little backside in the too small gown:

There are more pictures (if you are a friend/family on flickr) here. We let her run for about 20 minutes, then we hooked her back up. Her O2 was around 94-95 for just a little bit, then ramped back up to 97ish, where it had been. We were waiting around, and thought, um, she hasn't had a breathing treatment in awhile. They were supposed to be every 3 hours, then weaning her to every 4 hour. It had been 6 hours by this point. We asked the nurse, she called respiratory, who FORGOT, and got right down. It was a good thing, because it proved she was progressing fine, with no inhaler, and with running around, her O2 was doing well. So around 10 the doctor(s) came into check on us and gave us the all clear. She's to remain on the albuterol inhaler, 2 puffs every 4 hours for 5 days (except at night, we don't have to wake her, just give it to her if she wakes up coughing, which only happened once last night at 12:30). Of course, discharge takes forever, at 11 they came to take out her IV, take off all the stickers on her chest and O2 and pulse monitors, etc. As SOON as they were done, she passed out!! She was beyond tired. This gave us a chance to pack everything and send Eric to the car with it. The nurse came in and explained some stuff to us, and finally around 12:45 brought us our discharge papers. We let her sleep until 1, then woke her up to get her dressed. She was cranky at first, but when we told her we were going home (she had been asking to go home since about 6pm on Sunday evening), she got GIDDY! She almost ran to the van. She kept saying "Hooray, Hooray" the whole drive home. It was so cute. She's been doing well since. She's slowly getting her appetite back, and she doesn't mind her inhaler treatments at all. We call them her "puff puffs" :). She's taking a nap right now, so I'm off to entertain Micah for awhile. I will post other posts later, but in the meantime, PLEASE pray for MckMama's Stellan!!