WARNING: Long Wordy Post Ahead–
August 1st (2 days before Amy’s Wedding, when I was supposed to be knee deep in finish/helping with Amy’s wedding set up, flowers, etc.) Lorelei woke up with a slight cough…and by mid day, she sounded like an old man wheezing, and it seemed to be progressing as the day went on.
Here’s the video I sent to Toph, because I was so concerned about her…
She didn’t have a fever, it didn’t sound like a croup cough(and usually croup gets better during the day and worse at night), and I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what was going on.
So mid afternoon, I called the pediatricians office, and made an appointment, we ended up being the last appointment of the day. Our regular pediatrician was on vacation, but Dr. Ashby was there, with our favorite nurse Mickie. By the time they were able to squeeze us in, the wheeze was so bad, that they gave her a breathing treatment in the office (One of those moments, I was Feeling bad as a mom, that we hadn’t brought her in earlier), along with an antibitoic shot. They then proceeded to stay an extra hour after the office closed, to monitor her, and try to diagnose her condition (LOVE MY PEDIATRICIANS OFFICE!)
Because the treatments weren’t helping, there was no fever, and the wheezing was getting worse, the pediatrician asked me, if there was any possible way that she could have swallowed something, like a lego or a small toy. So, I thought about it, and realized I noticed the noise right after I had gotten her out of her crib. And I thought, well, there shouldn’t be any small pieces in her crib, but with 3 big brothers, one never knows exactly where every little lego, small toy is…. so I guess it’s a possibility?
The wheezing noise was so irregular, the breathing treatments didn’t help, and so they sent us over the hospital to do X-rays, to see if there was indeed a blockage. Toph was just coming home from work, and tracked me down at the ER at the hospital, as my cell phone died.
Lorelei cried thru the x-rays, and the technician was a funny man, who said, something to the effect of, When she coughs, it doesn’t sound good. You’d better make sure she gets a check up. And repeat, and repeat and repeat and repeat again. (As if I wasn’t already trying to figure out what was going on with my child)
When the x-rays were completed, There was no visible blockage in her throat, and her airway didn’t seemed to be stretched, so there was no indication of a blockage. HUGE RELIEF . But now, what was causing her to breathe so weird?
With the breathing treatments, apparently, they usually only do this certain kind in the ER/admit you to the hospital because there is something called the rebound effect, where approximately 4 hours the wheezing will return, this time worse than the first experience. So we were on pins and needles trying to figure out what to for the night, waking her up regularly, monitoring her breathing, etc. Thankfully the rebound effect did not happen. But also our pediatrician called us twice thru the night, and once the next day to check on her. AWESOME. Thankfully when she did wake up in the night, the cool air, and medicine helped calm her, thankfully we have the power of the priesthood in our home.
The next day, she still didn’t feel well, but was doing TREMENDOUSLY better. So during the afternoon, we went up to help set up Amy’s wedding, and she was a real trooper. I thought she would sleep, but didn’t, but was in such good spirits for feeling as crappy as she did! So glad that experience and day was done. She was a seriously awesome little girl, to endure it all so well.
(Above pic is when she finally fell asleep on the way home from the Ranch where we were setting up for Amy’s and Wayne’s reception!)
We have been blessed with healthy happy children, and having experiences like this, makes me grateful that our children aren’t medically fragile.