Sicky

Maryam got sick right after Valentine's day. She was out of school two or three days. She needed steroids twice a day and Albuterol around the click. It was bad. Thankfully I was able to control it before it got so bad that she needed to be hospitalized.

Poor Jax

Poor Jax has been going through a rough time in the gastric region of his body. He's been having severe belly aches again. It's been going on for about 10 days. It sucks.
So today I took him to the doctor for some advice. She wants me to keep a food log. She said if the log is inconclusive after a week and he's still displaying symptoms, she'll order a food allergy test. She listened to his tummy and said he'd have more diarrhea today, possibly vomiting. (He didn't have either today) She also said the symptoms are similar for food allergies as a tummy bug. But because of not having a fever or vomiting, she's leaning more towards allergy. Plus the inconsistency in pain from day to day makes her think its an allergy.
Today he only had two belly aches. One while he was at the doc's office and one right when we got home from the doc.

Still sick

We had to cancel our big plans to hit up the Living Desert Holiday Lights tonight because both children are still sick. Maryam is needing breathing treatments every 4 hours and now Jax needs them too. Jax is a ball of need. He's so sad when he's sick. :(. He fell asleep during his breathing treatment tonight. Good thing too because he didn't want the breathing treatment. He's not a fan then again, he's not use to it like Maryam is.
Tomorrow we have a full schedule but if they're both sick, we may have to cut back on some activities. Tomorrow morning we're supposed to have breakfast with Santa at Applebee's, it's a PTO Fundraiser. After that Maryam's classmate is having a birthday party. After that we're doing a little family gathering for Maryam's birthday. After that there's the city light parade followed by the city winter festival. I think I'm going to have to cut out an activity or two for the children's well being.

Sick kids

Right now both children are sick. Maryam is battling some respiratory bug that is requiring nebulizer treatments every 3 to 4 hours. We're on day 2. If it doesn't get better, I'll start her on steroids tomorrow.
She really wants to go to school tomorrow because her class is having an ABC party and we're bringing the cupcakes! I really hope she can go!
Last night Jax woke up vomiting and had a fever of 102.6! So between Maryam needing breathing treatments every 3 to 4 hours and Jax being up from 3-5 am, Mama is TIRED!
Thankfully Jax didn't throw up anymore today but he was a sick baby boy. Sick baby boys need lots and lots of cuddles. So, Jax was a big baby ball of need and I was happy to oblige.

Maryam is sick

Again. Ugh. I hate this time of the year. We know that Maryam's lungs are affected by the cold weather. Last week we had a 30 degree temperature drop over night. She woke up hacking and had a runny nose and fever. Maryam ended up staying home from school Wednesday-Friday. Poor baby.
We had to cancel our trip to Orange County tomorrow. We signed up for the CHOC Walk. We raised $775 towards CHOC. We are very disappointed that we can't walk. But we have to put Maryam's health above everything else.
She seems to be feeling a little better today. She's only needed 2 breathing treatments so far today. Last night she had 2 between 9 and midnight. Scary stuff.
I ordered her a new nebulizer mask today. It's a pink dragon mask. I think she'll like it! I figured that now that she'll wear a mask, that I might as well get her a fun one. :)

Maryam and her CLD

So, Chronic Lung Disease sucks. Fortunately I've been able to manage it through education and experience. I ask the right questions and listen to advice from her doctors and usually can get her back to "normal" within a few days.
The thing about CLD is it causes simple things like bronchitis to make it nearly impossible for her to breathe. If you or I or even Jax get bronchitis we'll be down for a day or two and be back to normal within 3 or 4 days. When Maryam gets sick she gets SICK.
Jax started to get sick Wednesday night, by Saturday morning he was fine! Maryam started to get sick Friday night and by Monday couldn't go more than 3 hours without a breathing treatment.
So Sunday I started doubling her antibiotics and QVAR. By Monday I started her on steroids. Her steroids are pills and she just cannot swallow pills yet. I tried smashing them up and desolving them in water but she still gagged, retched, turned purple and choked. It's not pretty.
Monday night she had a breathing treatment at 10pm and another one at midnight. She was awake at 5am today needing another. I gave her two breathing treatments before 6:30am today!
So at 7am I woke up Brett and told him to take her to her doc to get her steroid in liquid form. The doc said I did everything right. Doubling her antibiotic and QVAR and starting the steroid are exactly what he would have prescribed. He also confirmed that Albuterol around the clock was a must. He wrote the prescription for liquid steroids, refilled the Albuterol script and sent them on the way.
Today was tough. Albuterol every 3 to 4 hours and not seeming to help is disheartening. Poor punkin is sad. She's tired because she can't sleep. She's moody from the steroids. She's hyper from the Albuterol. It's rough.
Tonight she had a breathing treatment before bed, another one at 10:30 and I have the alarm set for 2am and 6am to do it again.
CLD sucks.
In good news, Jax is mostly healthy!

Now Maryam and Jax are sick

No biggie though. We knew it was going to happen. I doubled Maryam's regular antibiotics and started neb treatments for her last night and have done them every 4 hours today.
Jax has been better today. The highest his temp has been was only 100.5. M was 100.2. He hates the breathing treatments but he's managing. M is fine with them. They both hold it themselves but I stay nearby to make sure the vapor actually gets inhaled.
Jax slept through the night for the first time since Tuesday. Yay!

Jax is sick

I know I have totally fallen off on updating my blog. I have no reason, just lots of excuses.
Right now I'm dealing with a sick little boy. Jax started getting whiney Tuesday night. He didn't have a fever or any symptoms of being sick. Wednesday he woke up with a slight fever. It was 100.5. The part that concerned me was the bloody nose he had with it. It was his first bloody nose. I gave him some Motrin to bring his temp down and he was fine the rest of the day!
Yesterday Jax woke up with a 103 temp and another bloody nose! He also started coughing a lot. Weird. So Daddy took him to the doc Thirsday afternoon. Turns out Jax has bronchitis. Yikes. Seems rather early in the year for that kind of crap! Ugh.
So Jax came home with directions to give him Albuterol neb treatments 3 to 4 times a day for 4 days and a 7 day course of Amoxicillin. Good times.
This morning he woke up at 5 am with a temp of 104.2. Super yikes! I gave him a dose of Motrin and Tylenol and draped him in a wet towel. He was quite upset but not strong enough to fight me off. After about 2 hours I got him down to 100 degrees. He fell asleep and I went back to bed. We all slept in until 10:30! Yay!
Today I gave him Motrin and Tylenol throughout the day. This kept his temp down. He's not a fan of the amoxicillin but he takes it. Tonight his temp was going back up and M started to get a fever. Her temp was 100 degrees after dinner. Both children wanted to go swimming so I said, why not? The cool pool water will help bring their temps down. It worked!

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!

Health update

It would appear that Jax is fully over the Croup ordeal. Yay! I ended up with a sinus infection and a horrible cough. Seriously, one night I could barely breathe I was coughing so hard. I'm very glad that is all gone. Now I'm down to what feels like a typical winter cold. Both Maryam and Jax have colds too. Her cough was pretty bad a few nights ago. I gave her Albuterol every 4 hours throughout the night and she was fine in the morning. Maryam started complaining that her ear hurts tonight. If it still hurts tomorrow, she'll be off to urgent care. Jax just has a runny nose. Earlier tonight Brett started feeling a cold coming on too. Damn you Winter!!!

We have tentative plans to go to Disneyland on Sunday. It will be our last chance before Christmas. If you haven't been to Disneyland at Christmas time you are really missing out. It really is a magical experience. They make it snow on Main Street! Its pretty amazing. HOPEFULLY the kids will be feeling better by then. Last year we couldn't go because Maryam was really sick. We've been pretty fortunate this year, in terms of Maryam's health. **knock on wood**

In other family news, Grandpa Langdon is back in the hospital. If you're a praying a person, please say a prayer for him. He's had a rough year. We really want to see him get well and stay well.

I have a feeling Christmas is going to be rough for many of us. Its weird not being around the people you love during the holiday season. I had a really rough time on my birthday because it was the first time I didn't get a call from my Grams on my birthday. It was weird. I cried. It was the first time I had cried over her passing since her funeral. I know Christmas is going to be equally hard in that respect. Yesterday we received a Christmas card from my Uncle Paul. It was weird not having my Auntie Mary's writing on it. It was an amusing card though! That kind of took some of the sting away.

Then Brett's sister being all the way in Alabama, and my sister all the way in Tennessee and my brother being all the way in Washington....its all so weird. Maryam is having a super healthy winter, and this is the winter that no one is around for her to hang out with. I'm very grateful that Maryam has been so healthy lately. I guess that's what is really important, I have healthy, happy kids and our siblings are really only a phone call away!

Our weekend

Brett was off this weekend! Yay! I love every other weekend, because the single parent thing on the weekend SUCKS! I don't know how single parents do it, I really don't. I applaud each and every one of you.
Friday night I went to see Eat, Pray, Love with one of my BFFs Mayda Marie. Brett had both babies asleep by 9:30 and had the rest of the evening to play his video games. I was shocked when we came out of the theater and it was 11:20! That movie was 2 hours and 20 minutes long! It didn't feel like it though, it was a good flick.
Saturday we got up and headed to Cabazon for the Thunder & Lightning Pow Wow. Can you believe I forgot my camera? ME! I forgot my camera. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I had never been to a Pow Wow before, it was very interesting. Too bad I picked the year where the weekend had record breaking heat and I had two kids. I guess before this year it would have been too easy. I love a challenge. Well Little Miss Sensory Processing Disorder WAS NOT a fan. Maryam had a rough time. I think the combination of heat, loud drums, lots of movement and a few thousand people wasn't a good combo for her. She was nervous. VERY nervous. She couldn't sit still, she didn't want to be inside the tent, she just wanted to sit with her back towards the show and be left alone or LEAVE! She kept saying things like, I have to go potty, I'm hungry, I need a nap, I WANT TO GO HOME!!! Ha! As soon as we left, she was fine!
Last night both kids got sick. Jax had a low grade fever, sores on the outside of his mouth and a cough. Maryam was coughing so much that she couldn't sleep. I was up with her from just after 1am until just before 5am, both of us are exhausted today. This morning Jax's fever was gone, but it was back this afternoon. Maryam had a fever earlier today and hasn't really stopped coughing since last night. I've been giving her honey and it seems to be helping a little. I hope that means its not respiratory. Ugh. Neither of them wants to eat, I'm guessing that they both have sore throats. Poor babies.

Jax is sick

We took Jax in because he was breathing a little fast, wheezing and retracting. All signs of respiretory distress that being Maryam's parents has made us all too familiar with. ;)
The RN Raphael took his vitals then had the doc come examin him. It was only supposed to be a nurse's visit. After an Albuterol treatment the wheezing stopped some. Jax was sent home w/Albuterol and a steroid. The doc ordered an RSV swab, hopefully that's negative. I don't think he'll get any worse than he is today though.
He weighs 14lbs 5.6ozs, 24" long.
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Am meds

I've never been stressed by administering M's meds before, so why now?
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Pictures from the hospital

Before Maryam started feeling better she wouldn't sit up, she wouldn't talk and all she would do was whine and cry.

Once the antibiotics kicked in she started sitting up, talking, singing and EATING!

Here is a picture of her with the fries she ordered from her nurse. She was an amazing nurse. We liked her a lot.

Here is a picture of Maryam's Lojack. If she went anywhere near the ward doors the alarm would sound and the doors would lock. Not that I ever left her side, but it was nice knowing that if I did, she'd be OK.

Free at last!

On our way home. M's 1st request was Roco Donald Happy Meal w/chicken nuggets.
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Going home!!!!!!!!

Woohoo! Maryam is getting discharged! What a roller coaster of emotions in the past 48 hours. I'm not going to go into it now, but wow!
Thank you to everyone who prayed for her or sent happy thoughts or lent her their good juju/mojo or whatever!
Love to you all!!!!!!!
Ps M read the word "Off" on her IV pump and wanted to push it. And that's why you shouldn't teach your 3 year old how to read. Ha!
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Napping

A girl, a mouse and her "pirate hand".
I like M's nurse today MUCH better than her nurse yesterday. I wanted to pound on her a little bit, or a lot. Her nurse came in a bit ago and took M's vitals. Her temp was only 98 and they dropped her IV fluids by 50%. She's getting a bit grumpy. I think its bc she's tired and hungry. She wants to eat but she's too tired and she wants to sleep but she's too hungry. No bueno.
She ordered fries from the nurse, apparently M thinks nurses bring any food! And now they're here! Wow! Like I said, her nurse today is much better than the one yesterday. Ha!
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Thinking happy thoughts

Th conversation w/the doc

Doc-I hear you like Dland
M-I want to go home
Doc-Home to Dland?
M-OK!
Then she proceeded to list off the rides she wanted to go on today.

Now she's sitting in bed singing ABCs, Itsy Bitsy, Small Wold, Twinkle and Jingle Bells. She's feeling tons better.
The doc said if she can stay fever free, she can go home this afternoon!!
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Little Miss Sunshine

For the record, if you ever want to make M cry inconsulably for 30+ minutes, wake her up at 5:30 for a 11 tube blood draw and then make her get up to go poptty! Yowza!
In good news, she hasn't had a fever sinbe about 4pm yesterday. In better news, she's talking again! In wonderful news, she started eating again! Yayayayayayayayay!
They're doing an immune system work up to see why she keeps getting sick. Checking white blood cell count blah blah blah. RSV negative! Woohoo!She pretty much completely stopped coughing. The 4th antibiotic worked. I think that proves she has/had an aspiration pneumo.
She's sating at 92% on room air. No more complaints of chest pains. She even asked for her glasses this am. I think we got her to the hospital in enough time to help her. Sunday night I was scared out of my mind that we were going to lose her.
They lent me a pump and are letting me keep the pump in my room. So I've been pumping every 3 hours. M has asked 3 times now why Jax is not here w/us. I'm so glad she's making her way back.
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Happy

Maryam asked for some chocolate pudding. Her nurse was very happy to oblige. She ate the whole cup down with no problem! After that she ate some Cheez-its and even took a few bites of chicken strips from her hospital dinner.
She's been all smiles! She even asked where Baby Brother is, nutty! She never asks about him. She's been begging to go to Dland. So I guess when she's all better we're taking a trip!
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