The Worst 5 Days of My Life

Grace has been hospitalized twice in her 3 1/2 short years. Once for Periorbital Cellulitis and the 2nd time for RSV and Pneumonia. Both times were very scary just due to the mere fact that my daughter was being hospitalized.

But I have to say that her being hospitalized for the RSV and Pneumonia was truly terrifying. She had been sick for a few days and had been back and forth to the Dr. a couple of times with different antibiotics to try. During this time, they thought she just had bronchitis. Well after unsuccessfully trying to break her fever with the Motrin or Tylenol, we brought her back to the Dr. because she had taken a horrible turn for the worst. She was not doing well at all. Her fever had gotten as high as 103.5 and just would not break. They hooked her up to an O2 sensor and found that her oxygen level was way down. It was not getting above 85. They gave her 5 back-to-back treatment with a nebulizer, that did not work. The whole time we were doing the treatments, I was holding her and staring at the number, begging for it to go up. And instead of it going up, it was going down. Dr. A said that unfortunately she was going to have to be admitted...right now! Then....I started to freak out. I tried to keep my composure in front of her because I didn't want to scare her. But I was truly scared for her.

Here is a pic of her pre-hospitalization.

My poor sick girl :(

So we get to the hospital, get her all checked in and the first thing they tried to do was get an I.V. in her. My first thought was, Oh boy, here we go again. When she was hospitalized the first time, they absolutely could not get an I.V. in her. They had every specialist come down, they had a pediatric ICU nurse come down, and NO ONE could get a line in. So, of course, what happens this time....same damn thing! I was getting so freakin pissed. I know that everyone was trying to help her, but all I could do is sit there and watch my daughter being pricked over, and over, and over again. They tried 17 times! Again, never got an I.V. in her. They decided that since she was still filling up her diapers that she didn't need the I.V....yet. So, they finally let the poor thing alone. And bless her heart, every time they would try again she would say "NO..no thank you"! Over and over again. So they drew some blood, took some x-rays and we waited.

It was now after midnight and she is finally sleeping comfortably when all of a sudden, in walk the nurses with masks on, gloves on and scrubs on! The RSV test came back positive and she had RSV and pneumonia. NOW I FREAKED! All I could think about was the worst. I remember calling my husband, who was home with Jake & Caroline (who was only 6 months old at the time) crying uncontrollably. My thoughts immediately turned to Jake and Cara. Do they have it now too?? I know that RSV in babies can be SOOO serious and I was really worried for Cara, not to mention the worry for Gracie and Jake.

During those first two days, my daughter did not move, did not eat and barely spoke. All she did was sleep. They had her on a constant stream of oxygen, but even then, those damn alarms kept going off because she just could not maintain her own oxygen level to where it needed to be. They would come in every 4 hours and give her a breathing treatment and pound on her chest in hopes of breaking up the phlegm. Poor thing, every time someone walked in, they were dressed head-to-toe in gowns, gloves, masks and it scared the hell out of her.

After the 3rd day, she finally got up, ate a little bit and wanted to watch The Little Mermaid. They were even starting to wean her off the oxygen and things were looking good! Whew. I thought, this is it, she is turning the corner. I even said to myself, "I bet we will get to go home tomorrow!" She even felt well enough to get up and play on mama's computer.

Then the night hit and things took a turn for the worse. Her sats dropped way down even on the constant O2. All these damn alarms kept going off and they could not figure out why she took a turn for the worse. They kept upping her oxygen and even with her on 100% oxygen, she was not getting above 82. Sooo freakin scary! So we spent all of the next day working on her breathing treatments and getting her to sit up and try and move around.

Unfortunately the 4th day in the hospital was daddy's birthday :( I was so hoping to have her out in time for all of us to celebrate together. But it wasn't to be. So, my sis-in-law came and sat with Grace while my hubby and I ran out for a quick bite to eat. We came back with balloons and cake so that the 3 of us could celebrate together.

We won't talk about the fact that I almost blew us all up! You see I had gotten a very yummy cake and thought it would be great to for Grace to help daddy blow out the candles on his cake. So here I am, getting the cake out of the box, putting the candles on the cake and I hear....."YOU CAN'T LIGHT THOSE", screams my husband. Why not I ask?? He explains to me that she is on constant oxygen, you will blow us all up! Holy Sugar! What the (blank) was I thinking??!! Now to give me some credit, I also did get the RSV and was completely sleep deprived, so I like to think that had this been a different situation, I would know better not to light candles near someone on oxygen!

Here is a pic of James pretending to blow out the candles on his cake!

So finally on the 5th day, she got up and moved around and ate. Her sats were still low. In fact, the nurses did not think that Dr. A would let her go home. But the Dr. came in and checked her over and said that because she was up, eating, playing, had color in her cheeks, that she felt comfortable sending us home with a nebulizer to give her treatments every 4 hours.

Caroline ended up getting the RSV too but did not have to be hospitalized because she was able to keep her oxygen levels up. I think because I was still breastfeeding her, it definitely helped her out. And Jake was fine. Never got anything!

Now that Grace & Caroline both had RSV, they both now have asthma. So anytime either one of them gets a cold, it's time to break out the nebulizer. Grace even knows how to give herself breathing treatments now.

So, that is my story of the worst 5 days of my life. Never have I been so scared about something happening to my children.