January Recap

WOW...January can be over already! Our house has been struck with multiple illnesses this month. First, Chloe got a stomach virus...no bueno! You know you are a mother when you clean up throw up, deal with yucky diapers, buy Pedialyte, and take rectal temperatures all in one day. She was down and out for about 3 days. It was pitiful, she barely even let me put her down for a minute. Second, I got the lovely stomach virus. Thankfully there was no throw up involved for me. I was down for about 4 days. Then we had about one illness free week!!!!!!!! Last week we were struck again and this time it hit HARD! My poor angel started Monday morning off with a cough. I thought it was no biggie and maybe just a little bit of allergies. Then Tuesday afternoon after she woke up from her nap she felt HOT. I took her temp and it was up to 103.6. WOW...I had never seen a fever that high on her before and needless to say it made me a little nervous. I gave her some Tylenol and then knew I would be going to the pediatrician the next day. I took her temp every 4 hours and the poor thing always had fever. We went to the doctor on Wednesday to find out that she had RSV. I was slightly worried about this because I always had heard such horror stories about RSV. The doctor reassured me she would be okay and sent us on our way with an inahler for her. They treat RSV kind of like asthma and so lucky me I got to give her the inhaler every 4 hours using a breathing chamber and then try to hold it on her face for 30 seconds. I'm pretty sure we never had it on her face that long because she is so darn WIGGLY! We continued to watch her, use the inhaler, and take her temperature. Thursday night Ryan was at a BB game and I was home with Chloe. She felt really warm to me so I took her temp and this time it spiked to 104.6. SCARY!!!!!!!!!!!! This time I had about had it and called my mom and totally broke down crying. A fever that high is definitely not something I want to mess with. I was afraid we would have to go to the ER and then possibly be admitted for the night. My mom quickly calmed me down and told me I should call the after hours nurse line. (All while this is going on Chloe is running circles around me playing and putting my jewelry on. This high fever clearly wasn't going to let her down.) I called the nurse and she gave us a number of things to do and told me to check on her every 4 hours throughout the night. So I did just that and then started alternating between Motrin and Tylenol for the fever. Let me just tell you that Motrin worked like a charm for us at night!!!!!!! We elevated her mattress, rubbed her head with a cool washcloth, and turned the humidifier on high. Friday morning we set off to the pediatrician once again. This time he examined her and she had an ear infection in her right ear. He gave us a very high powered antibiotic (stronger than what they normally give) and then sent us to an imaging center for her to have a chest x-ray to check for Pneumonia. We get to the imaging center and have to wait for a bit, all the while Chloe is walking around the waiting room waving at everyone and charming them and not acting sick at all. In the meantime one lady is giving me some dirty looks....like I shouldn't be in there bc my child isn't really sick. Her daughter was sitting in her lap being perfectly still and not making a peep. I'm thinking it's best to just let Chloe be instead of forcing her to sit in my lap and have a little meltdown in front of everyone. Oh well! We get to the exam room and I see this contraption they are going to put Chloe in for the x-ray. I immediately think this is NOT going to go well at all. I take her shirt off and then place her in this HORRIFFIC contraption and then it all went downhill from there. She CRIED and CRIED the whole time the guy was taking the pictures. It was a miserable experience for both of us! Thankfully she won't remember it, but I know I certainly will. After all that the doctor called us back in the afternoon to let us know the x-rays came back CLEAR!!!!!!!!! THANK YOU! At that point I was so relieved!

I am so glad to report that she is FINALLY on the mend! No fever during the day, but still a slight temp at night. She's on the antibiotic till next Sunday and is still using the inhaler as long as her cough is bad. Her cough still sounds AWFUL and her nose is still gross. Other than that she is doing much, much better!!!!

Now we are just hoping we will have an illness free February!!!!!!!!

Below are 2 pictures. One of Chloe taking the inhaler and the other picture is just an example of the contraption they used for her x-ray.