Pneumonia...

Yesterday (Monday) around 2:00p, I got a call from school. Ivie hadn't rested well at nap time, and was telling Miss Rosa and Miss Freda that she was tired and her throat hurt. Since I'm not sure she knows where her throat is, much less that it's something that can hurt, I was skeptical. I admit that a small part of me thought Ivie was playing on her illness from the weekend (strep throat) and looking for a bit more television time at home with Mommy. Especially when Miss Rosa put her on the phone and she said, in a much-too-happy voice for a sick kid, "Hiiiiiiii, Mama!!!".

But I went and picked her up early and brought her home. And she DID get some extra television time. At bedtime, all seemed fairly normal, other than she was breathing a bit heavy. But not badly enough to scare Dale or me as we headed downstairs to watch 24 (DVR'd from Sunday night).

We were only upstairs after the show for about 10 minutes before Ivie started crying. Since at nighttime Ivie "belongs" to Dale (I get the late-night feedings with the infant, Dale gets the occasional cry-outs from the toddler), he went in to check on her. He returned about 3 minutes later saying that he could tell that she felt miserable and that he couldn't blame her for crying - she wasn't breathing easily at all and couldn't get comfortable.

The next time she cried out, I took a turn checking on her (when one of your babies is sick, the nighttime ownership thing gets thrown out the window). I've never seen her working so hard to breath. Thoughts of a trip to the emergency room went through my mind, but I thought we'd keep an eye on her and try to make it through the night (since it'd probably be morning in the ER before we'd get seen, anyway - UNC's ER is a nightmare).

I laid in bed with Ivie for a while until Dale swapped out with me (I had to listen for Macie to wake up hungry, and couldn't do that from Ivie's room, so Dale drew the short straw). I knew that Dale wasn't going to get much sleep, since I was in there for over an hour and hardly was able to even close my eyes. Ivie's little chest was pounding, and she was tossing and turning every 10 seconds.

So fast-forward to this morning. Quick tidbit on Macie. She ate at 7:30p, was asleep by 8p, and didn't wake up until 5:30a. 10 hours! Another record. I, of course, awoke with a start at 5a and went immediately to her room to check on her - she was snoozing hard! She and I were the only ones in the house that got a good night's sleep. And when she got up this morning, Ivie's fever had spiked to 102, and her breathing was still horrible. So it was off to the doctor's office at 9:50a, after taking Macie to school for the day.

Let me just say that I'm thankful that we had day care for Macie today. It was hard enough trudging to and from the doctor (we had to go in 3 times) with Ivie, I can't even imagine how difficult it would have been if we'd have had Macie, too. Thankfully, Dale was able to join us for the 2nd and 3rd trips after his morning meetings. Ivie was so happy to have her daddy along. It was nice for her to have another shoulder on which to cry!

I won't give all the details of the doctors visits - it would get really boring and long, since we were in the doctor or picking up prescriptions pretty much straight through from 9:50a - 4:00p. But here's a summary of her treatment for what was ultimately diagnosed as viral pneumonia:

2 nebulizer treatments
2 shots (1 in each leg)
1st dose of prednisone (dissolvable tablets)
countless pulsox measurements
chest x-rays
Another nebulizer treatment

And the medicines that followed at home:

1st dose of a Z-Pak
continued dosage of Amoxicillin (still from the Strep Throat)
2 nebulizer treatments before bed (and 5 more per day for several days)
continued dosage of prednisone for several days

About the nebulizer treatments. We've had to do these with Ivie before. Once when she was around 8 months old and got RSV. And again when we visited Sarah's family in Dallas and the nasty air quality down there got to her (we still had a great visit, though, Anderson clan!). Suffice it to say that Ivie is NOT a fan of the little dinosaur mask that is a sad attempt at making the treatments tolerable for kids. It was one thing to hold down an 8-month-old. Quite another with an almost-3-year-old! In her defense, she sat pretty still throughout. But cried the whole time. And each treatment is about 10 minutes. So that was about an hour of crying today, just during those treatments. And plenty more just because she didn't feel good. No wonder she's WORN OUT tonight.

So we're hoping that she gets a good night's sleep. Doctor Joe was about ready to have her admitted to the hospital this morning. Her heart rate was at 177 and her oxygen levels at 95%. But by the end of the day, her heart rate was back to 122 and oxygen up to 97%. So we think we're going to be able to avoid the hospital. We'll check back in quickly in the morning for another couple of measurements, and then hopefully hit the road to Hickory for Thanksgiving.

So we've got even more for which to be thankful this Thanksgiving. Medicine helped our baby stay out of the hospital today. Really makes you think about those families that aren't so lucky. Prayers out to all of them tonight...