Here is a little summary of our week.......
We hardly ever have anything going on here in Louisiana but this week was kind of a busy one. Dusky threw his back out so I finally talked him into making a few appointments with the chiropractor and one with the massage therapist. I had appointments set up to go visiting teaching (which I haven't been extremely good at).
Dusky volunteered to clean the church and help move 2 different people. The guys were coming to install carpet at our house in Pineville and I had my first cake decorating class.
So as you can see our week was a little bit busier than usual.
Kaia has been sick for a little while now. I thought she was getting over it because she hasn't had a fever for a few days, but her cough kept getting worse and worse. She was really congested and she couldn't breathe very well. So on Tuesday morning I called the doctor. I decided that I might as well just take her in and get her checked out. I went thinking that he would tell me she was almost over her sickness and we just had to wait it out.
I got to the doctor's office and the first thing he tells me is that she has an ear infection in both ears. Then he listens to her breathe and he says he wants to send me downstairs to the hospital to get some tests done.
Dusky usually goes with me to the doctor but he had meetings so I was all by myself this time. We walked downstairs and they tested her for RSV by suctioning out her nose. She was pretty ticked off about that. Then we went to radiology and they did some chest x-rays.
Since I'm pregnant I couldn't be by the machines so two strangers had to take Kaia and hold her down to do the chest x-rays. She REALLY wasn't happy about that.
When we got the results back the doctor informed us that we would be taking Kaia straight over to the hospital and admitting her. She had pneumonia that was bad enough that regular antibiotics wouldn't treat it and he wanted to put an IV in her. He also was concerned that she might have asthma. She wasn't getting enough oxygen and he wanted to do breathing treatments.
I was kind of having a hard time with this. I called Dusky to tell him and I started bawling. I couldn't control myself. I kept looking at my little girl. She had 2 ear infections, pneumonia, and she could hardly breathe but she was still waving at everybody that passed us and yelling out "HI!" She had no idea what she was in for.
We had to wait forever for them to clean our room. They ended up putting us in an overflow room in the ICU because they were so busy. When we finally got settled in they came and did a breathing treatment. She was so good. She kept sticking her nose up in the tube and laughing.
Then came the not so fun part. My husband is such a good guy. He took Kaia in while they put the IV in her and I waited in her room. They had to wrap her up in a sheet and strap her down to the bed. The nurses kept saying "WOW! This little girl is strong!"
They finally got another nurse to come help. So they had 3 nurses and Dusky holding her down. They put the IV in, put a board under her arm and taped her up real good.
We spent the majority of the night holding Kaia down while she screamed. She didn't go to sleep until 3:30 am. We had to hold her down the entire time because when we would let go of her arm, she would try to rip her IV out.
About 4:00 Dusky told me to go home and get some sleep. So I did. He stayed with her for the rest of the night.
The next day was better as far as the IV goes. She was used to it and she didn't try to rip it out anymore. But being stuck in a hospital room for 3 days with a 14 month old get you tired fast. She wanted to get down and walk around and play, but she was hooked up to a whole bunch of machines. So I spent the majority of the days chasing around after her with her IV cords so she wouldn't pull them out. Which didn't always work. The nurse did have to come in and put them back together a few times.
Dusky stayed with her during the nights. They were kind of rough. We were both wore out.
Finally they let us go home Thursday night. We got the radiology reports back and Kaia has asthma really bad. (I blame her dad for that one) So they sent us home with a nebulizer and we have to give her breathing treatments every morning and everynight. She doesn't like them like she used to. She fights us everytime for the full 10 minutes.
We've learned that we have a very stubborn daughter, and she's a fighter.
I'm very grateful that she is as healthy as she is. I can't imagine doing stuff like that on a regular basis.
AFTER STITCHES...
