Saturday, February 26, 2011

Bronchitis for the boy and pneumonia for the girl...jealous?

Last Thursday night both kids started having labored breathing. It was horrible. I started getting flashbacks to Maryam in the hospital last year with pneumonia. I was really close to taking her into the ER. The only thing that stopped me was her temperature. She never got over 101.9. Last time she had pneumonia her temperature got up to 104, it was scarey. So, I decided to wait until the morning and take them both in.
When we got there both kids were wheezing. Maryam's temperature was 101.3 and Jax's was normal. The doc listened to Jax first. He decided Jax needed an albuterol nebulizer treatment because his chest was congested and he was wheezing. You can see from the pictures he didn't enjoy the treatment very much. After the treatment his chest sounded much better. Doctor wrote a script for the gunk seeping into Jax's eyes from his sinuses and told us to continue neb treatments every 4 hours for a few days. No problem.
Then it was Maryam's turn. He took one listen and told me combined with her fever that he was certain it was pneumonia. He didn't want to do a chest x-ray because she's had a lot of exposure to x-rays in her life and would just write a script for antibiotics and give her a breathing treatment. Her pulse ox was at 92% when we got there. After the treatment it was only up to 93%. YIKES. So, she had another breathing treatment and it got up to 96%. He told me to give her the treatments every 4 hours for her at home too. She didn't mind the treatment as much as Jax, probably because she's had them most of her life. You can see how excited I was. We were there for 2 and a half hours just to get both of them breathing normally.
We took the prescriptions to the pharmacy. After a two hour wait I had to pay $80 for Jax's eye drops. Crazy, right? Ugh, thankfully Maryam's antibiotics were only $4.
On Sunday Jax started vomiting. He threw up all over our couch. He got 2 cushions on the first round and the 3rd cushion on the 2nd round. He vomited 3 times on Sunday. He took Monday off from vomiting but filled the void with an enormous amount of diarrhea. He was back to vomiting on Tuesday and didn't quit until this Friday.
Friday morning I took Jax back to the doctor because Thursday night he was wheezing horribly again. I was scared. Had he had a fever I would have taken him to the ER. But, I waited until the morning. I took him in and he was sating at only 92%, was super congested and wheezing. The doctor said if he can't get it under control in the office I'd have to take him to the ER. Damn. After two breathing treatments he was up to 95-96%. The doc said that his chest sounded much better. He told me if I saw any retracting or any nostril flaring to take him to the ER immediately. He said Jax has a severe case of bronchitis and that we have to continue the breathing treatments every 4 hours. He said the vomiting and diarrhea is probably just a virus from having a weakened immune system from the bronchitis.
Today both kids are doing fine. Jax starts wheezing right at the 4 hour mark, so if nothing else, its a reminder that its time for him to have a treatment. Marym sits quietly and does the treatment herself. For Jax it can some times take both of us to get him to sit through the treatment. In the office Friday I had to have a nurse help me because he was trying to headbutt himself free!
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3 comments:

  1. sounds so much like my kids - McKenzie did her treatments with no problem. Michael is a monster. Actually he did ok when I distracted him with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, but in general he is a monster. I forgot to tell you, when Jax gave you a black eye, Michael gave himself one at the same time. That was fun going in public with a 18 month old with a black eye!

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  2. Ha! That's funny! I'm sure everybody says the same thing to you, "its bc he's a boy!" I hear that ALL THE TIME! Funny story. The week before I had a horrible sinus infection. It made the right side of my face swollen, like I had been hit! Everyone at work was asking about it. Then the next week I had a black eye! Then B had flowers delivered to me on Valentine's day. Everyone made jokes like, is there something you need to tell us? Ha! BAD TIMING!

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  3. LOVE the last picture here! Her smile just makes it! I hope you guys are done for a while!

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