The Best-Laid Plans of Mice and Men Often Go Awry

Well, last night's dinner was SUPPOSED to have been Balsamic Chicken. We didn't even get to prep it!! Gosh...where do I start? Starting about Tuesday of this week, Adri started getting a runny nose. I didn't think much of it, because it was clear and she wasn't coughing. Wednesday she started coughing a little bit, but I still didn't see anything to worry about. Thursday things started turning. That afternoon she had been running around the living room after Rosie and when she came to sit on my lap to have a snack, I noticed that she was beginning to wheeze a little bit. So I made plans to go pick up a nebulizer that evening from my sister and get her started on breathing treatments so that it wouldn't get any worse than it already was. I started at 7 o'clock when we got home, and strapped her up to the machine every three hours through the night. We got up Friday morning, and the treatments had done nothing. Her poor little chest looked like it was filled with cement and she was desperately trying to get it out. Her belly would fill out while her chest would cave in—it wasn't a pretty sight. So I made an appointment with her doc, put all the pets in their rightful places and hopped in Alice's van and headed to the doctor.


We got in and the first thing the nurse said was, "Well, she doesn't look too bad, now does she?" That's because she was walking all over the office and playing with the toys in the bucket. So I said, "Yes, that's what they said the last time she ended up in after-hours care for 5 hours and was almost sent to the ER. I bet if you take her pulse-ox it's going to be in the 80's." (anything under 90% requires oxygen). Her's was 86%. Score one for Mommy. Anyway, six breathing treatments, 3ml of oxygen, and a dose of Prednizone later, the doc comes in and says, "Well, she's still wheezing considerably, and she's not responding to the breathing treatments. I really think she would be better served and monitored at the emergency room at Children's Hospital. I've called an ambulance to take you guys over and they should be here shortly." At that point I was trying not to freak out, because my 12 year old niece Emily was with me and I didn't want to freak her out. So I just smiled and started calling people like crazy. I called my sister Bridget (the nurse) and let her know what was going on. She knew how serious it was too but was also trying not to freak out for my sake. I called my parents and let them know. They didn't care—they freaked out anyway. Then I called Ben. there wasn't anyone in charge there, so he just started calling and leaving messages with everyone he could think of and left. Luckily his office is only about 15 mintues from the doctor's office. The ambulance team we got was REALLY good (not to mention hot!!). They immediately took to Adri (in between playing with the office scale and other equipment). She played coy, but that just made them work harder to get her to smile or laugh. They got her carseat strapped to the gurney and we headed out the front door to the truck. Ben rode in the ambulance with her and Emily and I followed them in the van to Children's Hospital. I think that was about 1 o'clock. We didn't leave Children's Hospital until 6:30pm!!!!!!!! I totally understand why—they wanted to make sure that her oxygen saturation was going to stay above 95% and that she could go without a treatment for four hours (or close to it). Adri was having a grand time, but the rest of us were bored. They brought toys in for her and they had a TV/VCR in each of the triage rooms and brought in videos for her. And while I was wandering around trying to find my way to cell service, I saw a couple of older kids in rooms playing video games! All in all, it's a pretty cool place. And by this time, my mother-in-law was on her way up. She really was worried (especially with all the stuff Ben went thorugh when he was Adri's age), so she drove up from Buena Vista for the evening. She got into town just about the time we were discharged from the ER, so we met her in the parking lot of the Kaiser office, picked up the Jeep and got hugs. Ben and MIL went back to James and Alice's house to survey the damage. The poor dogs had been crated since 10am that morning, and we KNEW poor little Bingo wasn't going to make it past 3pm. We were right. He was pretty messy. But MIL knew what she was in for and cleaned him up with great gusto. Helped Ben get things settled there while I took Adri home for some much needed sleep (for both of us!).


We took her into the after-hours clinic yesterday by order from the ER to make sure that she was still responding to the steroids and her breathing treatments. The doc on call said she sounded great. She's on Prednisone twice a day for the next four days and I'll slowly wean her off the breathing treatments between today and Tuesday. I'll call in the morning to make an appointment with her doctor to discuss treatment options. Two of these episodes in two months isn't a good sign. They want to put her on a daily inhaled steroid, but I'm not real sure about that just yet. I think I'd rather have her tested first before we put her on anything daily. Maybe I'll talk to Bridget and see what she suggests. This is where my natural/organic side conflicts with my medical side. If she needs it, then she needs it. There's no getting around it. But I don't want to just give it to her blindly either.


Oy vey...I'll post pictures later today. Adri was just too cute in the ER not to snap a few pics with my cell phone.

posted by Brandi at 8:27 PM