My Little Wheezer

Jayna has RSV. She was 7 months last Saturday and it was overlooked because we were busy giving her breathing treatments every 4 hours and suctioning all the snot out of her head and worrying about whether or not she could breathe. She was going to have her Easter pictures taken on Saturday but that was a no go...she isn't allowed to be around crowds of people, sick people or second- or third-hand smoke.

About a week and a half ago, Jayna cut one of her top teeth. She was cranky and drooly and her nose was runny. Early last week her nose was still running and she seemed to have congestion deeper than normal. I finally called the doctor last Wednesday and I was told that unless her mucous changed colors or if she had trouble breathing that she didn't need to be seen. It is cold season for kids right now. I had been suctioning her nose for almost a week and she'd been sleeping with her humidifier on. I was doing everything I should be doing.

On Friday morning, Jayna got up at 4am. She was so very congested that she couldn't breathe out of her nose. And, you know, babies are nose breathers. I thought she just couldn't sleep because her nose was stuffed up. I got up with her and tried to get her back to sleep. No such luck. Chris then got up so that I could go back to bed. She finally went back to sleep at around 6:15am. I normally get her up at 6am to go to work. I decided that I'd let her sleep and when she woke up I'd take her to Summer and go to work a couple of hours late. Chris told me that I needed to take her to the doctor. I disagreed.

When she woke up at 7:30am, she was just normal happy Jayna. No congestion. No runny nose. No irritability. She was fine! So I called Chris and said, "She just woke up and she's fine. I'm not taking her to the doctor. I don't want to be that mom who takes her kid to the doctor for the sniffles. I'm not taking her." He then tells me that he felt a rattle in her chest when he was holding her at 5am. After a little arguing, I agreed to take her to the doctor.

We get to the doctor at 9:30am. This was the exchange between the doctor and I:

Doc: So, what's wrong with Jayna today?

Me: Well, she's not even acting sick now.

Doc: Yeah, she really isn't. Any fever?

Me: No, not that I know of. I've given her Tylenol a few times in the past few days for teething, but no fever.

Doc: What else is going on?

Me: She's had a cold for almost a week. I initially thought she was just cutting teeth, but it seems she actually does have a cold. She's congested and has a runny nose. Very irritable and apparently has a bit of a chest rattle.

Doc: Let's take a listen...

(Doc proceeds to listen while Jayna insists on pulling the stethoscope out of the doc's ears. It takes about 6 minutes to actually listen to Jayna's lungs because of said pulling on stethoscope and excessive wiggling and laughing...)

Doc: Well, it's a good thing you're here! Good call! She's really sick, although we've caught it early.

Me: I can't take credit. I didn't even think she was really sick...

Doc: She really doesn't act sick does she? She doesn't even seem to care that she may have RSV.

Me: WHAT?!?

Doc: Well, I'm going to have a nurse suction her and then we'll test her for RSV. While the test is doing it's thing, I'm going to have you give her a breathing treatment. After the breathing treatment we'll decide if she needs a chest x-ray or if you can just give her breathing treatments at home.

Me: Holy crap. I feel terrible. I didn't know she was so sick.

Doc: Yeah, me neither. She looks and acts fine.

So, she ended up actually having RSV. And when a kid gets "suctioned" at the doctor's office, it's much, much different than a bulb syringe. The nurse used a syringe filled with saline that had a tube about 2 inches long on the end. That tube had to be shoved all the way up Jayna's nose and the saline had to be injected in her sinuses and then sucked back out. It was seriously horrible for Jayna and me.

After the breathing treatment she apparently sounded better. But we were to give her breathing treatments at home over the weekend every 4 hours when she was awake and every 6 hours while she was asleep (luckily she sleeps through the night ones) and then recheck on Monday. We did this all weekend. I took her back on Monday hoping to atleast eliminate the middle-of-the-night treatments. Again, no such luck. She still had RSV on Monday, but was out of the contagious stage (still has to have limited contact) and sounded much better. We still have to give her treatments the same as before until Thursday. And both of her ears are infected now. Great...omnicef and diarrhea here we come.

My poor kid. She doesn't even know she's sick and it was a VERY good possibility that she was going to have to be hospitalized. She's alot better now. I can't wait until the middle-of-the-night breathing treatments are over. ..hopefully only one more of those.

And here's my little wheezer...

She likes to help hold the nebulizer thingy...

Can you see it in her eyes that she's smiling behind that thing? NOTHING bothers this kid!