Update: Sick

The last time I posted Reah was sick. Well she got worse - she spent all of Friday coughing and wheezing. Saturday I noticed she was struggling really hard to breathe and she was having retractions. I called the on call ped who suggested going in if I felt it was bad enough. I took her to urgent care (it was closer to my house) where they checked her blood oxygen levels. That never got higher than 88 but stayed in the 84 range. They told me that her lungs sounded clear but they were concerned about the oxygen sats - the normal range is above 90 - so they sent me to the ER again. I had to stop at home on the way because Matt wasn't answering his phone to let him know we were on our way to the ER. When I got there they took us right back and immediately gave Reah oxygen and a breathing treatment. I held the oxygen in front of her face (blow by) until the on call pediatrician saw her. She had an ear infection along with the bronchialitis - but with her not nursing very well that day plus the retractions he decided to admit her to the hospital.

We went to the Pediatric floor and got settled in. I had my sister-in-law come over and keep me company for a while (thanks Priscilla) and she went and picked up some clothes and snacks for me that I had Matt pack - he didn't want to wake Levi up. Anyway I stayed with Reah because I'm nursing her and they wanted to make sure that she got enough fluids in her. I got a bed to sleep in and the hospital provided all my meals. Reah stayed from Sat night until Tues afternoon. The Dr wanted her to be off of oxygen for 4 hours and the first time she made it to 4 hours then the sats dropped to 84 :( We stayed another night with her on Oxygen again and tried the next day (Tues). She made it 6 hours so they let us come home.
Even being sick she was happy and smiled at all the nurses who came in to work on her.



The little hospital crib she stayed in.

They even had little hospital gown that she used the first night and the last day. The other days she wore some kind of outfit or pjs that the nurses found - one of them was way to small on the legs and looked like she was wearing shorts.

Words cannot express the sadness and helplessness I felt seeing my daughter laying in a hospital bed on oxygen and looking so sick. It could have been worse if my little medical knowledge and mother's intuition hadn't have kicked in.

We have been home for a week now and she is still on the nebulizer breathing treatments mostly in the mornings for the wheezing.