We've spent the last few weeks under the weather. Seriously, this last round has been a doozy! It looks like we're finally about back to normal, for which we are very thankful. Here's a rundown of what happened.
A little over two weeks ago, Megan developed an icky sounding wet cough. A day or two later, she developed a fever. She had just gotten over a cold less than a week before so I wondered if she hadn't actually ever gotten over the cold but had developed a secondary infection. We took a trip to the doctor to find out. Great news--just a new cold.
The same day I took Megan to the doctor, Matthew developed a fever. His lasted a couple days and then he was back to normal temp with lots of cold symptoms (runny nose, coughing, etc) but otherwise acting normally. Megan's fever continued, however, and she started acting worse--not eating, not wanting to play--plus she sounded wheezy. If I hadn't taken her to the doctor on Saturday, I would have definitely taken her on Monday. However, since I'd just been told it was a cold, I didn't figure I needed to go back. By Tuesday, I was pretty concerned about her breathing plus she really didn't want to do anything but sleep. She wasn't eating at all and wasn't drinking much either. (The best way to feed her at this point was to give her apple juice in a syringe. She seemed to like this pretty well.) So we went back to the doctor and boy am I glad we did! Her fever was around 102, her oxygen level was around 92% (which is above the 90% I was looking for when she was on oxygen, but apparently is considered borderline. In fact, I found out some doctors send kids to the hospital automatically if their oxygen level is 92% or below). She was not acting good at all. She had a double ear infection and her lungs had lots of wheezing and crackling, even with the nebulizer treatment we'd given her 3 hours earlier. We did a nebulizer treatment at the office with albuterol as well as another medicine to help open up the airways. She sounded a little better after that, although there was still some wheezing and crackling. Her oxygen level was still 92%. However, she was acting a lot better--she was moving around and interacting with us more plus she'd drunk a whole bunch of water and eaten a few dehydrated apples. She got a shot of an antibiotic to help with the infections and then we were sent home with instructions to do nebulizer treatments every 3-4 hours and to come back the next morning. Needless to say, it was a long night with lots of interrupted sleep to do breathing treatments with Megan but totally worth it since we were able to be at home, not the hospital.
The next morning, Megan was acting better and didn't have a fever. She still wasn't eating (just apple juice in a syringe) but that's not so abnormal when you're sick. I was hopeful she'd be doing a lot better when we got to the doctor's office. Unfortunately, even though she was acting better, she still wasn't doing so great. Her ear infections had cleared a little but not as much as expected given the injection she'd had, her oxygen was still at 92% and her lungs sounded as bad as they had when we arrived on Tuesday--lots of wheezing and crackling. Ugh! Definitely disappointing. We did another breathing treatment with the two meds and she got another shot. Her oxygen level went up to 94% and her lungs sounded MUCH better! Yeah! So we left with an appointment for the next day and instructions to do breathing treatments every 4 hours. Oh, I should add that the doctor who saw her on Tuesday was off on Wednesday but ended up coming into the office to finish up some paperwork and was the one who saw Megan on Wednesday. I'm really thankful for that because it allowed us to have good comparisons between how she was on Tuesday and on Wednesday. Also, she told me on Wednesday that the only reason we didn't go to the hospital on Tuesday is because Megan perked up during our appointment and was acting a lot better by the time we left. I'm really glad she didn't tell me that on Tuesday--I think I would have been more worried than I already was!
We also found out at the Wednesday appointment that Megan has mild asthma that flairs with colds. I'm not really surprised by this since she tends to get colds easily and they last a really long time, both of which can be signs of asthma.
Matthew had continued having cold symptoms, but eating and playing normally. Well, Wednesday night, he developed a fever. I figured there was a strong probability of a secondary infection so I added him to Megan's appointment. Sarah had had cold symptoms since Monday and really wasn't feeling well on Thursday, telling me it hurt when she coughed, so I added her to the appointment as well. It's what you call a 3-fer-1, right? Except you have to pay for all 3....
At Thursday's appointment, Megan was looking much better. One of her ears was completely cleared and the other was mostly clear. Her lungs sounded much better as well. Strangely, her blood oxygen level was 90%. Bizarre! Matthew's lungs, on the other hand, had crackling and wheezing. Not surprising, I suppose. His oxygen level was fine at 96%. Sarah had just a little wheezing when she breathed in really deep, but nothing too bad. Megan and Matthew both got prescriptions for antibiotics and we needed to do breathing treatments with them. The doctor recommended using some cough medicine for Sarah to help thin the mucus.
Over the next few days, we did quite a few breathing treatments with both Megan and Matthew, gradually decreasing them as they started doing better and coughing less. (All three kids had horrible sounding wet coughs.) Matthew's appetite decreased a little but never to the point where he wasn't eating. Megan's appetite was pretty much nothing until Friday evening at which point she started readily eating
select foods.
Sarah actually got worse before getting better. She had a fever all day Saturday and Sunday. Sunday, in particular, she felt miserable. She just laid around all day and took multiple naps. (One nap when she's sick is rare so multiple is amazing! And shows how bad she felt.) I figured we'd be back to the doctor on Monday since she probably had a secondary infection. However, she woke up feverless on Monday and was feeling much better. Yeah!
I'm certainly thankful people are feeling better!
(Oh and, yes, I did have this cold, too. Although it was nowhere as bad for me as I didn't ever develop the icky cough. The hardest part was probably the lack of sleep due to all the breathing treatments with Megan. Not that I'm complaining--I'll do what it takes to help her breathe. Especially when it means being at home instead of the hospital!)
