Guess what!
She got bronchiolitis! Hooray!!!
So needless to say it's been a long couple of weeks. In fact, I have tried writing this post 3 times and I keep having to update the timestamp because it's become a week old. *sigh*
Anyway, yeah, a few weeks ago - December 4th, Facebook Timeline tells me - we had decided to bring Sam back to the doctor's. She had been coughing for almost a week before, and the night before she came down with a fever. Heeding the pediatrician's words about the signs of cough and fever, I called first thing that morning (I love that they're open 7 days a week) and sure enough, it was all in her chest. We were sent home with a nebulizer and a prescription for Albuterol and the instructions to have a treatment every 4-6 hours, and a follow-up appointment scheduled for Wednesday 12/7.
I guess it needs to go unsaid that Sam was not a fan of sitting still for 10-15 minutes while we alternates between a mask on her face and just holding the mist under her chin. Initially, it was a two person process because when she wants to move, she is superhuman in her strength, I swear. Eventually we learned that our iPhones, and even the iPad, were semi-distractions, so it got easier as we went along.
We went back for our recheck on Wednesday 12/7, and after her afternoon nebulizer treatment in the office, the doctor wasn't happy with what she was hearing, and to make sure things weren't getting worse, she sent us to get X-Rays to rule out pneumonia. I was freaking out.
I must say I love where I live -- not only are we next door to the best hospital on the South Shore, but my own doctor's office is now home to an extension site of Children's in Boston. We were given the choice as to where we wanted to go for the X-rays, either my office associated with South Shore Hospital, or to Children's, and as much as I adore South Shore, for Sam she deserved Children's. Plus, we were already in their system for her heart murmur, so that was where we decided to go. And after a little delayed registration because the receptionist at the desk was new, we were brought right in to get the x-rays done, and for that I was thankful.
The X-rays weren't fun for anyone I think... poor Sam had to strip down to just her pants, and we had to hold her arms up over her head so they could get a clear shot of her chest, and stay that way so they could take the picture... not fun. We had to do two different ones, one where I would be able to stand in front of her and distract her while they shot from behind, but the other one where they had to shoot from the side was not so easy. At first they wanted me to hold her from behind, but she was too busy freaking out about where I was that she just wasn't going to sit still. The tech then had to call another down, and while she took the pic, the first tech and I double-teamed Samma. It seemed like forever, but luckily it worked because we didn't have to retake either of them. Way to go Sam!
The wait to get the results back from the pediatrician's office sucked, so I finally called a few hours later when I hadn't heard anything... NO PNEUMONIA!! W00000t!!! Such a relief, I must say. We were then instructed to keep up with the treatments as we were, and then go back Monday 12/12 for one more follow-up.
I will plug again right here how awesome my daycare provider can be. She knew all about this, and I had given her the heads up about the neb treatments, and told her I would be coming over around noontime to give Sam hers -- she told me not to worry about it, just bring the machine and she'll do it for us! I guess she was familiar with them because her son needed it when he was younger, plus (and this was a good point) if I came Sam would think it's time to go and just cause more stress. So for that whole week she was helping us out with the treatments, and it was just awesome. I love her.
So come Monday, everything is sounding great, and the pediatrician told us we can start weaning her off the Albuterol, going to every 6-8 hours, then every 8-12... currently we're down to once a day, so we're almost done! Yay!
We were also given the green-light to schedule her 15-month appointment... did I mention I almost dropped the ball on this? Yeah... I thought we were just going from 1-year to 18-months, but nope... oops. Luckily we were able to get one in before the end of the year, so we're going this Friday before the holiday weekend, which kinda works because then I have an excuse to leave early!
So that's Samma's saga in a nutshell... it's been a rough, tiring, busy December, but I'm glad she's getting better, and just in time for the holidays to boot!
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