Big Surprises

Last Friday, June 19th, I took Kate to the pedi. Big surprise, I know. She had been running a fever and was off her A game. She had been rubbing her ears a lot and I figured we had better get them checked before the weekend. Her only other symptom was that she sounded like her throat was tight. Not really hoarse, more raspy. Her ears checked out fine, but they did lab work just to check. Our doc really doesn't like leaving things unresolved before a weekend and I appreciate that. Her results came back showing she was fighting off a virus, with low white blood counts. Big surprise, I know. Since then she seemed to perk up.

This Friday she had a runny nose. Isaiah had one on Wednesday when he was here so this was not a big surprise. At least it was a clear, runny nose this time. By late Friday, she was running a low grade fever and was sounding hoarse and wheezy. By Saturday she was full blown wheezing and had a fever of 101+. We started breathing treatments, as needed. Sunday morning she and I stayed home from church. She had a couple of diarrhea diapers and slept a lot. By Sunday afternoon she sounded horrible. I had my sister in law, Lisa, check her lungs and she confirmed that she had some crackling going on. She was also having a lot of retracting. I knew I would have to take her to the pedi on Monday at this point, but her new insurance doesn't go into effect until Wednesday, no surprise.

I had a horrible time sleeping last night, as I worried about how bad she sounded. If we had insurance, I would have been very tempted to have taken her in. This morning I was up at 7:45 to call the office. They confirmed that she need to be seen and asked me to bring her in right then. I woke Kate up and we headed out. She did have some green discharge from her nose this morning. They did a pulse-ox on her when we got there and I was very surprised it was between 97 and 99. She was still straining and retracting quite a bit. The on-call doctor (ours is on vacation, big surprise) came in and checked over her. Her ears were fine, no surprise. Her nose needed to be suctioned and cleaned with saline, no big surprise. Her chest was really junky and the doc had a hard time hearing at all. She ordered a double breathing treatment and a dose of steroids and then wanted to check her again.

We suctioned her nose, rinsed it with saline, gave her the steroid, gave her the breathing treatments and waited. A while later they checked her pulse-ox again and it was down between 94 and 97. At this point she wasn't retracting. Apparently when she was retracting (using her auxiliary muscles, in this case stomach, to help her breath) she was getting enough oxygen. When her airways opened a little more she quit using these muscles and wasn't getting as much oxygen. That was surprising to me. It makes sense now, but I didn't expect for a) her original pulse-ox to be so high and b) for it to drop with a treatment. The problem with her retracting and using auxiliary muscles to breath is this. That is a last line defense. That is what the body does to get oxygen when it isn't getting enough. When those muscles get tired, which they will, they give out and she will be in real trouble.

The doctor checked her again and officially diagnosed her with asthma. Despite the green in her nose, she didn't really feel like there was an infection brewing and asked us to withhold the Motrin to see if a fever spiked. As of tonight she was running 101.4, so we will be calling in the morning for an anti-biotic. The doctor didn't want to jump the gun on that since Kate had already been having diarrhea and an anti-biotic is sure to make that worse. Two hundred dollars later (that's $200, for one visit, no surprise), we were given an oral steroid (at $30) for 5 days and told to do breathing treatments every 3 hours, day and night. She said we might be able to keep her out of the hospital this way. While I really don't want to be up every 3 hours, I really don't want to wind up in the hospital. With no insurance. No surprise. At this point we are allowed to stay home even if she continues retracting until she is showing signs of fatigue or wearing down too easily. As long as she is still playing and has some energy we are okay.

Daddy-O started a part-time job last week to try to pick up health care benefits. So he's having to be at work at 4:00. IN THE MORNING. I am NOT a morning person, no surprise, but have been getting up earlier since he started working. I don't feel right about sleeping in when he gets home from one job and starts on the next. I figure the least I can do is pick up some slack. Because of his crazy early shift, I don't feel right about asking him to take the night shift with the breathing treatments. So it's just me and Kate-Kate.

If Kate is not significantly better by tomorrow (as of bedtime she was not), we will be returning to empty our piggy banks once again. If she is doing better, then we will be returning on Thursday for a follow up before the long weekend.

This new diagnosis brings on lots of new questions, no surprise. Mainly the old chicken <--> egg situation. Is the asthma causing her body to be more susceptible to viruses? OR Are the viruses causing her asthma to flare up? I'm pretty sure the second is true, but am not 100% sure about the first. I would guess that since she will have insurance and her doctor will be back in town next week, we will probably go in and make a new game plan. We will be looking into more testing or seeing some specialists. For now, I hate that she has gotten this diagnosis. As an asthma sufferer myself, I shouldn't, but do fear this disease. It can get so out of control so fast. I know for me, even as an adult, it is hard to "listen" to my body for symptoms. Having a child that cannot vocalize any symptoms worries me. At the same time, if this diagnosis brings us a step closer to an answer, I will welcome it. For now, we do what we can until we know more.

I had high hopes of getting her 13 month post done, but unfortunately my 3 hours is up, no surprise.