Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Poor sick girl :(

Today involved a surprise trip to Fredericksburg! And now we won't be going to the local LLL meeting tomorrow or Fredericksburg's LLL meeting Thursday.

Last month we all had a nasty cold. All four of us were miserable, snotty, coughing, and exhausted. Three of us have gotten over the miserable, snotty, and coughing parts. Adia hadn't really gotten over more than the snotty and some of the miserable. She has been exhausted, pale, and coughing since then, although the coughing has mostly been at night and first thing in the morning. She's been getting winded fairly easily too.

Yeah, the obviousness of what was happening went right by me. We started giving her vitamins over the weekend assuming it was her iron. Duh. Not so much. I realized last night after a 20min coughing fit that she was having an asthma flare-up. Charles and I dragged out the nebulizer and steroids at 10:30 last night and gave her a quick treatment, and she coughed exactly twice after that. (I stayed awake until after midnight. Coffee at 3pm is a bad plan.) I called the pediatrician's office at 9 this morning (note: although the message says they open at 8:45, that really means 9:15) and eventually got her an appointment at 10:15. Which I was late for. Which was okay, because they lost our chart temporarily. I was biting my nails, because I was afraid they were going to think we were neglectful for waiting so long. (She wasn't doing any wheezing that could be heard without a stethoscope, though, and that's our usual clue.)

I described what had been going on to the NP (who was amused to note the history of seeing us for the same thing every Nov/Dec) and she agreed with me. Adia had the beginnings of bronchitis. We did a Xopenex treatment in the office so she could double-check it wasn't pneumonia. Luckily, it wasn't. We're home with an official diagnosis of seasonal asthma and:

Azithromycin (1x day, 5 days)
Claritin (1x day)
Xopenex (every 6hrs while awake)
Pulmicort (1x day, at bedtime, 4 weeks)

I'm glad she'll be off the antibiotics for Thanksgiving, although I'm not thrilled by the idea of travelling with the nebby (again.)

I'm doubly glad we caught it early this time, so she's not completely and utterly miserable. Or hospitalized. Her mood has already improved after three nebby treatments and one dose of antibiotics. She even fought bedtime, and it's been awhile since she did that. ;)

She did fantastically at the doctor's office, by the way. No tears, and she inhaled and exhaled just like the NP asked. :) Maybe all of those visits to the ER and various doctors this summer set her a good example? :P

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