Blogging about life in Minnesota, raising our six kids with Down syndrome while battling Breast Cancer.

Be the kind of woman that when your feet hit the floor in the morning the devil says, "Oh shit! She's up!"

Monday, January 28, 2013

The Plague

Over Christmas the plague hit our house. Dean was the one most affected. Angela has missed school a few times since then.

And then it hit, for real! On Sunday, January 20th, Angela started that barking cough that tells me it's time for the nebulizer. Monday morning she woke up with a 103* fever. She was SICK! The every-four-hour neb. treatments started as well as Tamiflu and doling out Tylenol at regular intervals.

She slept, and slept.

On Wednesday Axel woke up with a 102* fever. He laid down and just cried. He was miserable, poor kid. Tamiflu and Tylenol for him! By afternoon Dean was in bed with a fever too.

Angela still slept.

Wednesday night I realized I was now nebbing Angela every 2 1/2 - 3 hours. That means that the inhaled steroids were't cutting it anymore so it was time for a boost. We headed to the E.R. Thankfully it was the fastest E.R. visit EVER and they got us in and out of there pretty quickly. She was given oral prednisone along with a prescription for z-pack for the sinus infection she'd also developed.

The whole week there was a lot of this going on.

By Thursday Axel was acting better but I kept him home anyway. Angela was still on the couch and still getting nebs every 4 hours, sometimes a little more frequently.

Saturday the boys were feeling better so they went to my friend's house. Poor Asher was going a bit stir crazy with the rest of us doing nothing but laying around! But throughout the day Angela was going downhill. Her fever was gone but I was having to give her neb treatments much more frequently, and by late afternoon I realized we were down to every 2 1/2-3 hours. This is much too frequently and an indicator it's time for stronger meds and rule out pneumonia.

She and I took a trip to the ER. She was really dehydrated again, making me feel a bit defeated because I had been forcing her to drink a large glass of water every hour for days. Unfortunately the rapid breathing she'd been doing causes her to still dehydrate no matter what I do. She was started on an IV and they added steroid meds to it as well. These help reduce inflammation in the lungs. She had a chest X-ray done to rule out pneumonia. Thankfully she didn't have that but the did have lungs that were hyper inflated from trying so hard to move air. The person is trying to breath deep, but the inflammation causes the air to get trapped in the lung.

Even with the IV steroids she was needing to be nabbed every hour and a half so she was admitted. There was period when she needed continuous nebs for awhile because she just couldn't get over the hump. By midmorning on Saturday she turned the corner and was back to only needing nebs every 4 hours. She was discharged after dinner and so far, so good at home! It'll be a few days before she's able to return to school. She's missed several things last week that she's not happy about!

Axel returned to school today, although he's still seeming a little bit off. He doesn't have a fever or any other symptoms, he's just very quiet. Makes me wonder if he has fluid in his ears or something. Dean also went back to work today. I think he was about ready to go nuts with all the laying around!

Thankfully Asher and I were able to avoid the crud last week. I kept praying, "Please, God, if I'm gonna get sick, make it be when the kids go back to school!"

2 comments:

Jackie said...

Oiy! Glad Angela is better. We've had the nasty cold and throw up bug. I LOVE winter! And with the bitter cold it's just been miserable. Spring can arrive sooner than later!

Imogen said...

wow, that sounded truly wretched! I hope you and Asher escape catching those bugs!