Friday, March 25, 2011

Bronchiolitis again

Natali was not a happy girl yesterday.  Her coughing fits were so bad they were causing her to throw up.  Then she started wheezing really badly and she didn't want to eat.  Darren called and made an appointment with the doctor and I came home early so he could go to work.  We had a late afternoon appointment with the doctor and they tested her oxygen saturation.  Normal is 98 and Natali was at 87 when they first tested it.  She watched it for a minute and it went up a little, to 92.  So, they got out a nebulizer and did a breathing treatment in the office.  The doctor says this may be either the beginning of asthma or she has bronchiolitic airway disease, which is better to have because it will go away eventually.  The asthma likely will not.  Asthma is more likely if there is a family history.  I didn't think there was, but my mom says my grandma and my uncle both have it.  We'll see.  I just want to get her better now.  The doctor gave her a prescription for an antibiotic and a steroid and we are having a nebulizer delivered to our house today to do our own breathing treatments.  They usually deliver it the same day, but our appointment was so late yesterday that they delivery place was closed.  I hope it comes soon because Natali really needs it.

After the doctor yesterday we went and picked up her medications before coming home.  Once we got home I fed Natali a bottle and waited to see if she would keep it down.  She did, so I went ahead and gave her the medications.  Then she threw everything up.  I sort of panicked at that point.  Not only did I have a vomit covered child and carpet, but she didn't keep down any of her medicine.  I had no clue what I was supposed to do at that point.  Thankfully I have a sister and sister-in-law who are both nurses.  I had conversations with both of them.  I feel very lucky to have medical professionals (and mothers) in my family.  They are a big help in these situations.  I got Natali cleaned up and immediately put her to bed.  The rest of the evening was more of the same.  We really could have used that nebulizer.  Oh well, we survived.  Natali did surprisingly well overnight.  She had a coughing fit around 3am, but otherwise she was fine.  She is much happier this morning, but still very wheezy.  I'm hoping we get that nebulizer soon.  I got a call from the delivery service this morning confirming my address for delivery, so hopefully it won't be too long.

In other  news, Darren and I aren't big fans of our pediatrician.  He is very good at his job, he just isn't a very personable guy and he isn't very forthcoming with information.  He even seemed to get upset with me when I said I had given Natali some Tylenol earlier in the day.  He asked what I was treating because I hadn't taken her temperature.  I said I didn't know I just thought it might make her feel better since it's the only thing I can really give her.  He said I need to be careful because Tylenol can cause liver damage.  I was a bit annoyed.  It's not like I'm constantly dosing my daughter.  It's the first time I've given it to her in over a month.  He kind of made me feel like an idiot, and I definitely am not.  I am very tempted to change doctors.  The only thing the stops me is I absolutely love his nurse.  She is the one that does most of the things for us, all the normal shots and stuff.  The doctor doesn't do much but look at her.  Changing doctors is hard.  There is another doctor in the same practice that I really liked when we met her at the hospital, but I wonder how easy it is to switch doctors within the same practice.  I don't really want to go somewhere else because I really like the location of this practice too.  I think Darren and I will have to discuss it some.  If Natali keeps having problems and we have to go more often I think switching would be a good idea.

Oh, and Darren thought he wouldn't get a flight yesterday and he would just be back home to help me, and then he got sent to Canada at the last minute!  Of all places to get sent when you really don't want to go anywhere, they sent him to a place that makes it harder for us to even communicate with each other. :(  Hopefully he will be home today, but he might not be.

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