It all started in the middle of the day yesterday (thursday), Samantha started to act really fussy. She was coughing a tiny bit, but I didn't think much about it. I put her down for her afternoon nap, and she woke up like 30 minutes later, coughing and crying. I tried to get her to go back to sleep. She fell asleep for about another 30 minutes until she woke up again.
The older kids hadn't done their valentines' yet, and Lauren was to make her own "box" for her desk since the teacher said it was just too hard for first graders to do at school. The table was a mess with all sorts of junk for making a used formula can look all cute and heartish.
Meanwhile, Samantha is awake and unhappy, mostly crying. I go back and forth to trying to make her happy and to settle disputes among the older girls and glue this and cut that. Then of course it was dinner prep time. Poor little Samantha, it seemed like she just cried the whole evening.
When we sat down for dinner, Rob held her while we ate. She was still really upset. She would cough and cough and didn't seem to stop. Sometimes she would go to cough and then act like she couldn't cough. She sometimes had a bit of a barking cough too.
She was not only coughing lots but you can actually see her breathing fast, her whole little body is bobbing as she takes a breath. Robert and I do the whole bedtime routine with the other girls, and Samantha is SO tired. I debated on just putting her to bed. She ends up falling asleep in my arms for a short time.
When she wakes up after about 5 to 10 minutes, she is coughing more, crying and wheezing more. I realize she is definitely getting worse, so I decide it is DR time.
Being new to this area, I have no idea what is near us, or where a provider is that our insurance will cover. I call the PPO provider number to find out after hour clinics around here. There is one right in this area (okay like 4 miles away) so I buckle little Samantha up and head that way.
I get there, their lights are just turning off and I notice on the door it says, they close at 8pm, which would be 46 minutes ago. I luckily had written down a number and address of the next closest place. I call that number (a time when I am glad Robert got me that cell phone) and they close at 9.
Of course it will take me a bit to get there, and I am not really even sure where it is. I pull up to the clinic at 9pm, and get Samantha out, to find out the door is LOCKED!
I am not sure what to do now, I don't really want to do the ER thing, yet I am concerned about her. I really feel confused because on one hand, I know she isn't acting right, but on the other hand, I am wondering if it is just a little cold and I am just being an over protective mom that brings her child in for every little sniffle. I call Rob for some advice or validation.
Rob reminds me that our Pediatrician has an after hours nurse, so I call her and find out that their clinic is open til 10. I figure I have time to get there.
Robert suggests for me to go if it will make me feel better. I decide to go to the pediatrician after hours office.
I get to their office (at 10 pm), and she is wheezing, and what they call retracting (it is where when they breathe you can see their skin go in under their ribs which shows sighs of distress in their breathing). She is still coughing.
The nurse comes in and checks her oxygen level, pulse, and her respiratory rate (how many breathes she takes in a minute)... her respiratory is high but everything else checks out. She also had a tiny bit of a temperature too.
The doctor came in and questioned me about what was going on. Because of the barking cough and because the symptoms came on so fast, he thought it was croup until he listened to her breath. He said she has viral bronchiolitis. She is having barely any air flow on her left side. He gave her a breathing treatment, a RX for an inhaler with the same type of medicine in it to give to her at home. They re-check her stats after the breathing treatment to see if it has improved.
He also recommended me to take her to the Utah Valley Hospital (can't remember their official name) for their "suction clinic." I didn't even know they had such a thing. I guess they do it lots for RSV patience. I took her in, they put saline solution in her nose to loosen things up, then put a small tube down her nose and suck everything out. Poor thing. I can take her at anytime back if she needs it.
She was still wheezing after that whole process. Her respiratory rate was still kind of high. She was all worked up since I had to hold her down while they did the sucking. They thought that could be part of the high rate.
We leave their, I go get the RX for the inhaler. We drive home, get home at a little after 1 am. I am exhausted. I change Samantha's diaper, put her to bed. I find Lauren in my bed, I take her back to her own bed. I lay there still thinking about the whole nights events. I fall asleep.
Lauren comes in my room to sleep with us again, at about 3 am, I fall back asleep, and then hear Samantha coughing and crying. I check on her, and then decide to give her some medicine. She is NOT happy. I settle her back down and crawl back in bed a little after 5 am (with Samantha). I am exhausted! Lindsey and Amber come in to my room 25 minutes after my we were suppose to get up, alarm is still going off, which I totally slept through. OOPS, girls only have like 25 minutes to get ready for school and eat breakfast.
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