Unscheduled Fun with Doctors!

The theme of the last week or so was definitely unscheduled fun with doctors.  First, I had a cold that led to some asthma type symptoms that landed me at the allergist and on steroids and albuterol.  Doing much better now though and nicely recovered. 

Then, Chiron picked up the cold.  He went from fine when we dropped him off on Tuesday morning to not looking great when I picked him up at 5:15.  They said he'd been coughing and seemed a little under the weather, but weren't alarmed.  I figured it was a cold and we headed to pick up Trajan.  As we were waiting for Trajan, Chiron seemed to get worse by the minute, so I hurried him up and we headed home.  Decided to skip dinner for him and just head upstairs, get a temp, give him milk and put him to bed.  The temperature was 102.4, so I put in a call to the pediatrician to get them to call in some Albuterol preventatively.  Started feeding him and he started wheezing and coughing more.  He was deteriorating as I watched and so headed back downstairs to start packing to go to the ER.  While doing so, the pediatrician called and said to definitely take him in.

At this point he was wheezing loud enough that it sounded like a musical instrument.  Driving to the ER with the stereo all the way off listening to him to make sure he kept wheezing was one of the most terrifying experiences of my life.

He continued his life-long achievement of not having to triage in the ER by wheezing pretty severely at the checkin assessment.  His pulse ox wasn't bad at 96, but since I'm not above dropping the phrase "29-weeker" there, we got taken straight back.  They tested him for RSV and flu, but the doctor we saw says she refuses to give this information as it doesn't impact what they do and can get parents worked up.  I think I got a nurse to say both were negative, but I'm not 100% sure.  Things like that just annoy me.  If I am quoting you his H&H, I obviously have a bit more knowledge than average running around there and I promise not to overreact either way.  I just like information.

However, I still like this doctor because she said that she sees very little improvement with kids this young with albeterol because they don't have sufficient smooth muscle or something like that.  Since he had wheezing in the lower part of the lungs and crackling in the upper, she had an RT administer two nebs of albuterol over the time we were there and they both confirmed that it didn't seem to improve things.  As a result, she said that we definitely don't have to wake him up to do albuterol and can really think about not doing it at all.  As he screams and struggles throughout, this made me love her.

Isn't he the happiest looking fella (with the exception of the first picture)?  And this is hours after his bedtime.  I got him a 40-minute nap in the Ergo at one point, but that was it. 

He was having problems with his cough causing him to vomit, but I got very good at catching it in the emesis basin.  They got some Zofran into him though and that helped a lot and so we were able to get him started on oral steroids.  His fever came down with Motrin to 101 and so they discharged us with a prescription for four days of prednisone, a just in case albuterol prescription refill and instructions to monitor.

He stayed home with Paul the next day, but really was doing better by Thursday, so we sent him to the majority of a day of school.  And he's looking much better now.

Trajan's explanation of his medicine to one of his after-school counselors was kind of awesome.  He touched a bug and so his soldiers have to fight it and we are giving him medicine that gives his soldiers armor so they can kill the bugs easier!

Chiron stayed home this weekend while I ran Trajan up to my parents for spring break just to give him a little more time to recuperate, but I'm happy to say that he's looking great and has no fever nor any wheezing at all.

However, to continue the fun of unscheduled medical appointments, I had one of my own this morning.  Yesterday, I got back into town and walked down to the mailbox with Chiron.  Our mailbox is at the entry to the street in a cluster.  This was actually an auto-eliminate when we first started looking at houses, but our standards dropped and we live with it.  There was a package and so I carried it, the mail and Chiron back.  Within a few minutes of getting back I felt a gush type wet and I had had some sort of bleed.  I laid down while he napped and it completely stopped and there wasn't even the old blood within two hours, so I waited until this morning to call.  They had me come in just to check things.

The answer is it was almost certainly a placenta bleed from Righty.  Her placenta started as a partial previa and I think is now a marginal that we are hoping might make it all the way to no Type of previa at all by the end.  It was self-correcting and hasn't continued to bleed, so nothing too alarming.  Because of the bleed, she went ahead and did an internal exam and my cervix is not only long, but is still closed, which is definitely a very good thing.

Both babies looked good at this twelfth ultrasound, but Right had a much lower heartrate than Lefty when we looked on the ultrasound so she checked them on the Doppler.  Righty was easy to find and was in the 150s.  Lefty is harder since she has the anterior placenta, but we were able to get a reading through the placenta and it was in the 130s, so also a perfectly acceptable value.

She said to go ahead and add a 25-pound weight limit to my life as the only modification for now.  She also said she wanted me to keep my appointment for next week so she can do a one-week recheck.  I also see the perinatologist that day, so will definitely be checked!

And just for giggles, the dog who thinks she's a cat: