Yesterday was a very long day. I hadn't paid much attention to the cough Halie started Sunday afternoon until it kept both of us up most of the night. By about 4 am I'd resolved to take her to the Dr in the morning. She was restless & taking short labored breaths. The first appointment I could get was at 11 am, and Halie was a wreck I had to hold her all morning and she repeatedly asked me for more Tylenol. Poor baby must have felt rotten.
We got to the Dr's and the nurse said her oxygen was at 91. Halie fell asleep while waiting for the Dr to come in (which made it very easy to examine her) but by that time her oxygen had dipped to 87. So they gave her a breathing treatment, and checked again in about 20 mins. By that time her oxygen was bouncing between 88 & 90. Which, by the way I was thinking was pretty good, I mean that is still a B or B+ right? Wrong, apparently if it stayed below 90 they wanted to transport her by ambulance so that they could give her oxygen. The NP told me that if I drive straight to the ER that she should have enough oxygen reserve and would be ok, but I had to drive right there.
I did stop for diapers and to tell Troy what was going on (he was cleaning my carpets). Then we headed to Primary Children's. My mom met us there and took Sierra, and Duaine came as soon as he could too. They hooked her to a machine to monitor her Oxygen, gave her another breathing treatment, talked about pneumonia, X rayed her lungs, gave her a steroid to help her breathe, & finally came back with a diagnosis of Reactive Airway Disease, or more simply Asthma as a reaction to a virus.
She got an inhaler with a spacer that she calls "my puffer" a grundle of stickers, and a sippy cup that may cost more than my car, and she can no longer participate in the Olympics this year because of the steroids they gave her!
When we got there she was a lifeless little snuggler, and by the time we left she was growling at all the nurses. It pretty much scared us to death. Asthma I can deal with, but the possibility of my baby having to go in an ambulance because she does not have enough oxygen was a little much.
All in all it was a long day, but a happy ending.
