When you don’t think life can get any crazier, it does. Ed planned to be out of town last weekend on a camping trip with some guys from Redeemer Campus Fellowship at Campbell. I was at home with the kids and to make the time pass quickly, I had all these fun plans – movie and popcorn one night, gym for them to play one morning, church one morning, Chick-fil-a with friends, and some other fun things. But, then, life happened….
Kinsley has been struggling with allergies pretty badly the last few weeks – runny nose, coughing, sneezing, etc. – which, when allergy season is as bad as it has been around here, everyone has been struggling. Saturday morning, she woke up coughing like crazy, so I gave her allergy and cough medicine. She seemed to get better, so we continued on with our day, but as the day wore on, she became tired, very lethargic, started coughing so much she was throwing up, started wheezing, and was breathing hard. She took a nap, which she never does, and was still acting exhausted. I really suspected pneumonia, so I loaded her and Emerson up (left Blake with a neighbor since Ed was out of town) and we headed to Urgent Care.
When we got to Urgent Care, they took her oxygen, saw how low it was, and started freaking out on us. I had no clue what was going on and they didn’t explain anything other than we are sending you to the Pediatric ER and we need you to go straight there and get there as fast as you can. What in the world?!? Lesson #1 – Use an Urgent Care that explains it better to you than what they did. I knew I needed to get Emerson home somehow, I needed to try to contact Ed (even though he was at a place that gets no cell phone reception), and I needed to get to the ER.
As we are driving to the ER and I am using my phone for directions, it dies. All I could think was “Are you kidding me?” Lesson #2 – Always have a backup charger or backup way to get directions. We finally get there, after a few wrong turns and a lot of time later (at least it seemed), and they take us straight back to get her started on oxygen. They also ruled out pneumonia via a chest x-ray, gave her fluids, gave her two breathing treatments, and took some labs. In the meantime, our neighbor got in touch with Ed, our church small group co-leaders came and got Emerson to take her home, and my neighbor put Blake to bed.
The doctors decided to admit her since she was still pulling hard to breathe, was wheezing, and was vomiting, so after Ed arrived, I took a trip home to get some things for us and then headed back to the hospital to stay with her.
The next day, they weaned her off of oxygen slowly, gave her another breathing treatment, and then decided she was safe to go home with an inhaler of albuterol in case she struggled to breathe again. By this point, she was feeling better and because she wasn’t hooked up to things anymore, the hospital turned into this really fun place – she had a dog come visit her and do tricks, she got to pick whatever she wanted for lunch and dinner (I can really have mac and cheese and ice cream – at lunch?), and she was getting time to play games and read books with just her, mom, and dad. I think she was ready to go home, but a part of her was sad as well. As we traveled home, I kept thinking “Did that really happen? Did we just stay overnight and I am still not really sure what happened to her because it was all so fast?”
The doctors described her as having a viral infection with lung spasms which caused the coughing, wheezing, difficulty breathing, etc. They think that it could have something to do with allergy and asthma, but only time will tell. Our first night home, she vomited a few times and the next morning, was tired and pulling to breathe, but after giving her a few puffs of her inhaler, she turned a corner and has been doing much better.
To top it off, when we got home, I got a stinkin’ virus and spent all afternoon and evening in the bathroom. Not sure if it was related to hers or something I picked up at Urgent Care or the hospital, but it stunk! All that to say, instead of saying “Rain, Rain, go away” we are chanting “Sickness, Sickness, go away – Pollen, Pollen, go away!” Please chant with me 🙂