3 Years, 9 Months and Pneumonia

This past week Abby and Briggs both had their well child visits.

Abby

• Weight 31lbs, 50%
• Height 37 inches 25-50 %
• Head: 49cm, 50-75%
• She is right where she is supposed to be for her language abilities and motor skills.
• Overall she is doing well. I discussed sleeping habits as well as behavioral issue with the Doctor and we are going to give a little more time and if behaviors don't change we are going to have to look a little deeper.

Briggs

• Weight 19lbs 6oz, 25-50%
• Height 28.5 Inches 50-75%
• Head: 45cm, 25-50%
• He had to have a shot which he was not fond of.
• Started crawling the day after his 9 month birthday.
• Bables all the time, sometimes sounding like "Da Da"
• Can get into the sitting position from his tummy
• Can pull himself into the standing position
• Loves to throw things
• Eats a ton

Overall he is also right where he should be. I was also a little concerned with his sleeping habits, along with some congestion he had been having. However I just assumed it was related to teething because he has 4 teeth all coming through right now. It had been clear all week, except that day it had begun to turn green which typically means infection. He had not been sleeping at all, which is a slight change from almost never sleeping and so I was concerned. The doctor checked him out. She said he seemed to be fine and didn't want to put him on antibiotics unnecessarily. I agreed.

Flash Forward: The next day, he seems worse. He screamed all night long and just wasn't right. He had a fever of 100.5 and so I called to doc to see what was up. The nurse of whom I am not exactly fond of, really wasn't listening to me. Basically she said its just related to his shot, if he gets bad take him to the ER. Gee thanks.

Flash Forward: The next day, He is even worse. Same middle of the night antics but this time he has a fever of 101 and is really breathing hard including wheezing. He is extremely congested and struggling to breath. So I gave him a nebulizer treatment and that did help him some. On top of that Abby wakes up with a fever of 100.6. Crap! So I call the doc again for an appointment. Again they say its probably related to the shot. So.... I said I didn't think so. Both the kids have fevers and I want them to see the doctor, so she reluctantly made an appointment for me.

Flash Forward: Several hours later, we are at the doctor. She sees him and the look of concern in her was not something I wanted to see. She sees how hard he is trying to breath, suggests taking him to the ER first but then decides to tell the nurse to go get him a shot of steroids immediately and also a nebulizer treatment before she does anything else. So now I am a little freaked out. He has been like this before, so I figured we would go in, get some antibiotics and other meds and we would be on our way. Wrong. Thus she has us wait awhile to see what effect the steroids and albuterol have, in the meantime she is calling the ER.

The meds did do some good, he was breathing a lot easier and seemed calmer but he still sounded horrible. Thus she sends us to the ER for Chest Xrays and observation. So while heading there I am calling all around trying to get someone to come pick Abby up. She was already heading downhill fast with her behavior and I knew she wasn't going to last hours in the ER. Thankfully both Cindy and Cheri were able to come and Cindy being closer was there very quickly which was a big relief. By the way Abby did seem to be fine and the doc said to just keep an eye on her since she had no other symptoms.


Free of Abby and holding one sick baby we sit waiting for our turn in the ER. Kinda silly you have to wait in the ER, I mean does the E for Emergency not mean NOW? But I digress. We are finally seen, they triage him, take his stats, temp, o2 levels, listen to him etc. Then off to the xray...which he hated. It was 11:40am when we got there and it was about 2:30-3pm when they finally came back with the diagnosis of Pneumonia in his right lung. Yes, my jaw dropped. I felt so bad. They told me some of the things to watch for..... and I had seen him doing it in the middle of the night. I wish I would have taken him to the ER then. Next time.

Two options were given, one I could admit him to the hospital in which case they would transfer him to the children's hospital because they don't admit children there. He could be there and get the care he needed. Or two, they could give him a really strong anti-biotic there in the hospital, give me some perscriptions for out patient care and keep a close eye on him. I was a little dismayed at what to do, he talked to my pediatrician and they both thought the home care was the best option if I felt comfortable, so that's what I did.


The nurse came with the medicine and prefaced it with "this is really going to hurt him. I mean it hurts really really bad, can you handle this?" So I say yes, hold his arms down while another person has his legs and the nurse sticks him. He immediately tensed and started screaming, I felt horrible but he was a little champ. I was so proud of him. I had to wait another half hour to make sure he was OK then, from there we were getting ready to discharge him.

So we wait. She brings in everything for discharge and she rechecks him and decides he is not ready to go home. His o2 stats were dropping and he was sounding even worse than before. She told me they were probably going to have to admit him after all. The doc comes in and confirms what she says. He wanted to try another breathing treatment to see if that would open up his lungs. He didn't want to send me home if I wasn't able to get him breathing clearly right away. So again another treatment is preformed and more waiting. Thankfully he gets significantly better and his o2 stats rise. Finally we were able to come home. With all sorts of meds, breathing treatments every 4 hours and constant attention. They said if he got worse to bring him back immediately. Gee thanks for that reassurance.

So we are now home and he is doing really well. He still sounds awful but he was like a rag doll yesterday whereas today once he gets a treatment he is full of energy and no longer has glassy eyes. He is still getting better and we are watching him but overall I am thankful he is home and improving all the time.