Saturday, April 11, 2009

Maryam's Sick

Maryam giving herself her breathing treatment.
She's so good. I'm so proud of her. She's just trying to take it all in stride. Now if only Mommy did that! Ha!
So, its been a rough few days. Thursday Maryam started retching a ton. It was awful. She retched with her formula, without her formula, just retch, retch, retch. Thursday night she got so bad that she actually threw up. She threw up 4 times and went through 4 different sets of jammies. It was terrible.
When she woke up Friday morning Brett and I decided to give her Pedialite instead of Pediasure to see if that would help her with the retching, it didn't. In fact, the retching seemed to actually get worse. Again she was retching with the feeding, between feedings, hours after feedings, in the middle of a nap, the middle of the night, you name! But now it was a little different. Now the retching started with a cough. If you've heard this kind of cough before its easily identifiable. Its the kind of cough your child makes when she's trying to get extra air. She was coughing for breath.
Last night at 3am we couldn't take it anymore. Maryam was coughing and retching so bad that she hadn't gotten any sleep and was crying out from fatigue and pain that I finally called the KP RN advice line. She suggested, based on Maryam's symptoms, that we take her to the ER. Good times, right? So, at 4am we're in the car and heading to Joshua Tree.
When we get there, she's sating at 97%, has a low grade fever of 99.7 degrees and isn't coughing anymore. We looked like TOTAL liars! She was acting totally fine. She had even started talking again! (something she hadn't done all day) After we went over the symptoms with the doctor and went over her VERY long history he thought it would be in her best interest to do a chest x-ray. The chest x-ray came back a little confusing for the doctor. Having nothing to compare this particular x-ray to, he couldn't tell if she had pneumonia or if what he thought was pneumonia was just scar tissue from her Chronic Lung Disease. So, he gave her an antibiotic for pneumonia and sent us on our way.
We got home around 5:30 and M didn't go back to sleep. Well, she slept for about an hour on an off on my chest. She was just terribly uncomfortable from not being able to breathe. It was terrible. I emailed her pediatrician and told her about our night and asked if she had any suggestions. She wanted to see M to make sure she didn't need an IV for dehydration and also wanted to give her a steroid and check her ears for the ear infection she's had the past two weeks. So, at 10:15 we were on our way to Palm Desert. Almost immediately she noted that Maryam was breathing faster than normal and was clearly struggling for breath. I explained to her about the coughing and retching and vomiting. She called it "air hungry". She said this causes coughing which can lead to retching, which can lead to vomiting. Our little one was having a severe Asthma flair up with respiratory exasperation. Dr. Mohan gave her a shot of steroids and a shot of antibiotics. And she gave her a breathing treatment in the office. She counted her breaths and her breathing slowed down after the breathing treatment and then slowed even more after the steroid shot. Unfortunately Maryam's single ear infection in her right ear is now in both ears. UGH. The good news is that the antibiotic that she was given for the pneumonia should also clear up her ears. Hooray!!!Have I told you all how much we love Maryam's pediatrician? WE LOVE HER!!!!!
We were sent home with a liquid steroid and antibiotic that we're supposed to start tomorrow. She said if Maryam is still requiring the rescue inhaler every 3 hours for more than 2 times in a row then she'll have to be admitted because that would mean they don't have her Asthma under control.
Right now Maryam is asleep in her bed, but she's still coughing herself awake. She's not due for another breathing treatment for another hour. I just pray that she can stay asleep long enough to get to midnight. Once she gets the breathing treatment again she should stop coughing for another 5 hours or so. As you can see its been a rough few days for all of us. Now I just hope we can get her healthy and stay healthy so that she can still go to CHOC. Its only 3 weeks from this Monday. Say your prayers.


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2 comments:

  1. Poor girl! I hope she feels better soon. You said she threw up, are they going to check and see if her nissen is still intact? I'm sure you know that retching can cause the nissen to come undone or stretch to the point of not functioning.

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  2. Been thinking about you guys a lot. I hope those steroids and antibiotics start to kick in soon.((HUGS)) from Ohio. . .Ellen & Ally

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