Mutterings Of A Mindless Mommy

Even our trip to the doctor’s office on Friday afternoon couldn’t save us from yet another visit to the Emergency Room.  On Friday night about 8:45pm Ava started grunting and retracting with each breath so I knew she was having a difficult time breathing.  We gave her a nebulizer treatment and it didn’t get any better so off we went to the Emergency Room - this time at the local Children’s Hospital.  We were seen by a doctor within about 45 minutes (triaged before that) and the doctor spent a long time listening to her lungs.  Her oxygen saturation varied between 92% and 97% so she was doing OK but evidently the doctor heard something in her lungs; she called it ‘decreases’.  She said it sounded like pneumonia and they ordered a breathing treatment and a chest x-ray.  The chest x-ray confirmed the doctor’s suspicion; she has pneumonia and it was down deep in her left lung.  She was given a large dose of Rocephin; unfortunately they had to break it into two shots - one in each thigh.  They put a numbing agent in with the shot to help ease the pain but it must have really hurt because Ava screamed and pulled her legs in for a good five minutes after they were done.  Ava, the girl who rarely notices pain, was screaming in pain.  I can’t imagine how bad the pain was - I just held her and sang to her.

We were finally discharged after a quick watch to ensure she didn’t have a reaction to the Rocephin as she’s never had it before.  We walk outside and it is cold and pouring rain.  We were parked about 1/4 mile away and Ava couldn’t walk from the pain of the shots.  I made sure I had a good hold of her and started running off to the car - she was yelling “cold cold” and I had to agree - it was cold and very wet.  I was sloshing through puddles in my sandals - it was in the 80s earlier that day; neither of us were dressed for the dreary weather.  We finally mae it to bed about 2:30 am but sleep wouldn’t be restful; her cough kept us both up. 

She is doing better today - last night we weren’t kept up with her cough.  The hospital sent us home with a 7 day course of antibiotics to use in addition to the dose they gave her at the hospital.  The pediatrician will run another X-ray at the 2 week mark to ensure that the pneumonia is gone.  I feel bad that Ava gets so sick so quickly.  When we go to the hospital and she sees the little contraption that measures her oxygen saturation she immediately puts her finger out; she knows where it goes.  She had RSV as an infant (3 months old) and at the time we were told that having it so young increased her risk of having asthma as she got older.  I guess I didn’t really believe them as we have no family history of asthma; until now.  Hopefully we find a good way to manage her asthma so we don’t spend a night a month in the emergency room.