germs and cooties...gone

I've been busy dealing with a house full of sickies. I do believe that all the nasties have officially left the building though. To recap the last 3 weeks.

Thanks to wheezing and retractions, I took Avery to the ER twice in the same weekend. On a Friday night she was diagnosed with RSV. I took her back on Saturday night because the Albuteral was just not working. THey gave her a nebulizer treatment that did the trick. I learned from the ER doc that RSV is code for crabby ass baby. She was simply inconsolable. The dr informed me that RSV basically eats away the lining of the nose and throat. So it hurts. Babies scream. Parents cry. It was really bad.

Our 2nd trip, Saturday night, I could SO tell the nurse and the dr were assessing ME for how close I was to the brink of insanity. We were in a room for TWO hours, with Avery screaming the ENTIRE time, before a nurse came in. When she finally did I had tears streaming down my face, from frustration. Dan was at home with Sophie and Connor so I had no one to help. The nurse asked what I needed. Did I need a soda, no. To go to the bathroom, no. To take my baby. YES, please take my baby. Thankfully, she did. Where she took her, I don't know. I just know that she was gone, and the screaming stopped (at least as far as I could hear). I sat down and cried, and cried some more. SHe was gone for at least 30 minutes and it felt fantastic just to be alone. I am NEVER alone. Occasionally I would wonder where they went, but then I just put blind trust in the nurse that she was trying to help me and would not steal my baby.

The dr finally walked in with Avery. She was a mom of triplets, and it felt good to know that she GOT it. She understood my frustration. She did assess me. I'm sure she had no idea that I knew what she was doing. Asked me lots of questions about how much help I had. Luckily, she felt I was in OK shape to take my daughter home. SHe requested that I feed her every 3 hours, instead of 4, and keep her full of Tylenol until the virus was gone. She told me to do the same with Connor, who most definately also had RSV, although was never diagnosed.

That's only the 2nd time I've come close to the brink of totally losing my shit. Of just collapsing into a puddle right there on the floor, not even wanting someone to help pick me up. The first time was a few weeks after my mother in law died, when I was essentially single-parenting because Dan was just not capable. It's not fun.

The twins gave RSV to Sophie, which manifested itself in a REALLY nasty cold. These lovely cold symptoms caused asthma symptoms, so all three babies were getting puffed full of albuterol on a very regular basis.

In the mean time, both babies have had ear infections, and Avery apparently inherited the lovely issue of excema.

Connors "lump" was officially diagnosed as a hemangioma. In infants, this usually pops up outside of the skin so is treated by a dermatologist. Not Connor. His is internal, and will be treated with meds, by an ENT.

I took him back to the ENT 7 days after starting the propanalol. She was amazed by his progress, and thought that the lump had shrunk by at least 1/3 in just a week. Hmmm...I should have guessed something was up. I went to refill his script a few days later, only to be told that insurance wouldn't cover the meds for several more day? I questioned why this was, when it meant we wouldn't have enough to get him through until the refill date.

Turns out, the stupid idiot pharm tech instructed us to give him the meds in ML, when actually the ENT had written it for MG. So, I was giving him almost three times more medication than he needed. The kicker is that the main side effect of this med is lowered heart rate. So yes, Wal.greens could have killed my son. THe pharmacist told me to go home and take his pulse. Thanks to his ever growing fat folds, I couldn't get a pulse at his neck or wrist, so I sent Dan back to Walgreens, with Connor in tow. I figured it was the least they could do. She finally got a pulse of 77 at his femoral artery. Lowish, but OK.

We quit giving him the meds until we could talk to the dr office. The nurse confirmed that while scary, and completely unneccesary, as long as he seems to be ok, it wasnt it a huge worry. The dose I was giving him was an amount the dr would have worked him up to anyway. She started the meds out very low, on purpose.

So, that's what I've been dealing with, instead of keeping this blog up to date. I always have an excuse, but they're usually pretty darn good;)

I downloaded over 700 pics from my new camera this AM. hope to have some new ones on here soon!!!