Asthma

We noticed Emmy coughing and having a lot of runny nose and sneezing on Sunday night but didn’t think much of it. When she woke up yesterday morning she was snotty and crabby but seemed to feel better after breakfast so we went ahead and sent her to Jamey's so she could play-- all morning she had been saying "Dee Dee!" (Jamey's son) so we knew she wanted to go over there. We gave her a breathing treatment before we sent her and then took her over. Paul and I were at lunch when we got a call from Jamey saying Emily was very fussy and seemed to be breathing hard. As soon as we could we went back to her house- her sister in law was there (Jamey had an OB appointment) and Emily was having a SUPER hard time breathing- tugging, grunting, pulling, breathing really fast (over 60x/min) and felt hot like she had a fever. We called the pediatrician and begged them to get us in, which they did. We took her over and they wanted to watch her and give her breathing treatments and also oral steroids. Her pulse/ox was 80 (good is 100) but we were having a hard time getting a good reading so we weren’t sure about whether to believe that. Her temp was 100.1. They watched her there for 2 hours and weren’t satisfied with how she looked so they sent us on to the ER.

When we go to the ER they checked her pulse/ox again and it was 89. Her heart rate was close to the 200s but albuterol can increase it so they weren't super concerned about that. She had to be strapped down to the board again for a chest Xray which later came back clear. They put her on 1L of oxygen but later cut it back to 1/2 a liter and then turned it off completely. We got the "official diagnosis" that she is most likely asthmatic and we will need to have an inhaler with us, or readily available, at all times (like, we don't have to take it every single place we go but we should always have the prescription filled and have it in a place where we can find it or get to it easily, and take it with us if we are traveling out of town or something). She was treated and released from the ER last night and I stayed home with her today. I already took her to the pediatrician for her follow up and saw a different doc than yesterday who said she looks much better but to stay the course and do the albuterol every 4 hours until this evening and also to finish out the 4 days of steroids they had us get.


I don't really know how I feel about all this- I am disappointed to have the 'sick kid' but I'm hopeful that asthma meds have gotten so much better now that she will be able to live a normal life. I hate to see her in the hospital but I hate even more that we will have to be vigilant with her and exposure to allergens, etc. . Most of all, I just hope she gets completely better. The doctor today said most kids have a 50/50 chance of outgrowing the wheezing and airway issues by age 5 but when I told him Paul is asthmatic and Emmy already has excema he seemed less confident that Emily would outgrow it. I guess we will have to see!! For now I am just relieved that she was able to be treated and released and that she is her same wild self today.