This post is just for Miss Maegan and her wonderful Mom Melanie.
I needed to do a special post just for you to thank you for your prayers and encouragement, I am blessed to know you both and am so thankful you have allowed me to share a friendship with your family. I am so glad you got the Internet for Christmas. Do you have an new email address? I promise a letter will be on its way to you very, very soon. I got yours and it made me smile. I LOVED the picture. Thank you SO much for the beautiful Christmas ornament and the wonderful planner (I use it everyday-it is where I put all my PAT appointments). Several families have already complimented me on it--I always share that you made it for me!
Did you have a snow day this past week? We had lots of snow fall here in St. Louis. The kids got 2 snow days and a lot of the local hills were filled with kids playing on sleds.
Sending hugs and love. Hope all at the Surface home are happy and healthy.
xoxo
Sunday, February 1, 2009
RSV
RSV was the diagnosis one week ago yesterday when we took Joshua to the emergency room because he wasn't eating well, wasn't putting out wet diapers, and was laboring to breathe. We were told that this virus typically presents itself like a severe cold in adults (which it does, Chris and I both can testify to that) and can be hard on little bodies because little lungs can not clear the mucus caused by the virus fast enough often- resulting in pneumonia. He also said the phrase that I have been haunted by this entire week, "it often gets worse before it gets better".
We have tried to stay positive this week amid hours of home nebulizer treatments and exhaustion from lack of sleep. We didn't want to call and scare anyone by sharing that Joshua was sick. We thought we had things under control. I kept thinking we had "hit bottom" and that we were working our way out of this awful virus. I was wrong.
We started our quickest decent Wednesday night into Thursday morning. Joshua woke up as pale as I think you can possibly get without being blue. He had been sleeping in his swing to elevate his head and help with the drainage, but at 4:30 AM he was no longer satisfied with swinging or sleeping or anything else for that matter. I tried everything and finally called the doctors office at 8:30 AM when they opened and got the first appointment of the day. That appointment won us our next trip to the hospital (for those of you keeping tally this would be office visit #3 and hospital visit #2 in 5 short days.
Needless to say the last three days have been nothing short of awful. We are physically and emotionally exhausted. Joshua was put on an IV drip, oxygen, 3 hour nebulizer treatments, and chest percussion. That phrase I love so much, "it often gets worse before it gets better" couldn't have prepared me for Thursday night at the hospital. By this time I had had 5 nights of not sleeping more than 2 hours (optimistically) at a stretch and was starting to come down with a cold myself. I was having shivering spells and was running a fever and was so weak I wasn't really able to cope. Thank goodness for my mother. She met me and my dad at the hospital (he took Joshua and me so Chris could catch a few hours of sleep after coming off the night shift) and stayed with me through the night so that Chris could work his last day on shift (we thought he was stable enough to have Chris just meet us in the morning). Thursday night was the bottom. All of us were sick, Joshua was exhausted and kept waking every thirty minutes-screamed for 45 and then passed out only to repeat the cycle 30 minutes later. Finally around 4:00 AM Friday morning we begged for drugs and the doctors gave him some Benadryl to help him sleep.
Fast forward to yesterday, after one more day of observation and treatment at the hospital we were able to bring Joshua home. He still isn't eating very much and has lost some weight (he now comfortable fits back into cloths he out grew last month), but he seems happier and is sleeping (some) after his breathing treatments.
My prayer is that we never see this terrible virus again. The doctor says Joshua will likely have wheezing spells in the future as a result of this spell of RSV and that he could get it again next year (children under 2 are most susceptible). I hope not. It took us 1 FULL week and FOUR adults (my Mom and Dad lived with us this week) just to survive this spell of RSV. But if it happens we will cross that bridge when we get there.
We were reminded to take it all in perspective and recognize our blessings-- the room next to ours had a 9 day old baby battling RSV the same way Joshua was....God love those parents. Again, through this trial we were reminded how blessed we are to have such loving and supporting families. Chris' parents, our brothers and sister-in-law, my Aunts and Uncles all called to send their love and prayers for Joshua. My parents never left our side, and we received top-notch care. We are blessed and are so thankful to have a baby on his way back to healthy.
We have tried to stay positive this week amid hours of home nebulizer treatments and exhaustion from lack of sleep. We didn't want to call and scare anyone by sharing that Joshua was sick. We thought we had things under control. I kept thinking we had "hit bottom" and that we were working our way out of this awful virus. I was wrong.
We started our quickest decent Wednesday night into Thursday morning. Joshua woke up as pale as I think you can possibly get without being blue. He had been sleeping in his swing to elevate his head and help with the drainage, but at 4:30 AM he was no longer satisfied with swinging or sleeping or anything else for that matter. I tried everything and finally called the doctors office at 8:30 AM when they opened and got the first appointment of the day. That appointment won us our next trip to the hospital (for those of you keeping tally this would be office visit #3 and hospital visit #2 in 5 short days.
Needless to say the last three days have been nothing short of awful. We are physically and emotionally exhausted. Joshua was put on an IV drip, oxygen, 3 hour nebulizer treatments, and chest percussion. That phrase I love so much, "it often gets worse before it gets better" couldn't have prepared me for Thursday night at the hospital. By this time I had had 5 nights of not sleeping more than 2 hours (optimistically) at a stretch and was starting to come down with a cold myself. I was having shivering spells and was running a fever and was so weak I wasn't really able to cope. Thank goodness for my mother. She met me and my dad at the hospital (he took Joshua and me so Chris could catch a few hours of sleep after coming off the night shift) and stayed with me through the night so that Chris could work his last day on shift (we thought he was stable enough to have Chris just meet us in the morning). Thursday night was the bottom. All of us were sick, Joshua was exhausted and kept waking every thirty minutes-screamed for 45 and then passed out only to repeat the cycle 30 minutes later. Finally around 4:00 AM Friday morning we begged for drugs and the doctors gave him some Benadryl to help him sleep.
Fast forward to yesterday, after one more day of observation and treatment at the hospital we were able to bring Joshua home. He still isn't eating very much and has lost some weight (he now comfortable fits back into cloths he out grew last month), but he seems happier and is sleeping (some) after his breathing treatments.
My prayer is that we never see this terrible virus again. The doctor says Joshua will likely have wheezing spells in the future as a result of this spell of RSV and that he could get it again next year (children under 2 are most susceptible). I hope not. It took us 1 FULL week and FOUR adults (my Mom and Dad lived with us this week) just to survive this spell of RSV. But if it happens we will cross that bridge when we get there.
We were reminded to take it all in perspective and recognize our blessings-- the room next to ours had a 9 day old baby battling RSV the same way Joshua was....God love those parents. Again, through this trial we were reminded how blessed we are to have such loving and supporting families. Chris' parents, our brothers and sister-in-law, my Aunts and Uncles all called to send their love and prayers for Joshua. My parents never left our side, and we received top-notch care. We are blessed and are so thankful to have a baby on his way back to healthy.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
