Last week was miserable. Ali and I got the flu to start the week. My husband got it to finish the week and, had to cancel his spot in the marathon on Saturday morning that he has been training for since October.
:(
I felt so badly for him. He had worked so hard and two days before the race he gets the flu from me and the girls.
He has found another one coming up in March that he is going to retrain for. He has a goal of running the Boston Marathon in 2016 and needs the course to be just right to get the best chance for a qualifying time.
So while Ali, my husband and I were dealing with fevers, and shakes, and coughing and sneezing and the whole works, Elle had a runny nose and wasn't very hungry. She got a cough part way through the week, and every other day or so had an afternoon fever but never higher than 99.5 or 99.7. On the whole, was happy, playful and generally ok.
Or so we thought.
After the rest of us recovered I realized she was still not eating very well, not drinking much at all and these afternoon fevers were becoming more regular. The cough had gotten a little better, but was still there and her nose was runny but clear. I use saline spray regularly on both girls once their noses start running.
So Saturday afternoon when Elle woke from her nap with a 100.1 degree fever and hadn't eaten or drunk much that day so I took her in to the Children's walk in clinic. I decided this crazy odd set of symptoms needed to be checked.
The whole thing was over two hours long but the short version is she has Bronchiolitis and a low oxygen count. While at the clinic they kept testing and retesting her oxygen levels and her numbers were low enough that they were talking about sending us to the hospital!
I couldn't believe it!
They kept staring at her chest and listening to her breath and staring at her more, like they expected her to start turning blue any minute. It was completely scary!
After xrays and tests and a breathing treatment they were able to get an oxygen count that was a bare minimum for sending us home instead of to the hospital. We had to continue the breathing treatments all weekend and then take her in to our regular pediatrician on Monday (today) for a follow up oxygen count.
These nurses scared the pants off me, they literally stared at her and then asked me in the most incredulous tone 'how long has she been breathing like this'?? Like, how could I possibly have missed it!?! I don't know?? She looked normal to me, stuffy, but not like she was struggling to get air. I felt like such a terrible mom.
Well, this morning I loaded both girls up because, good grief, I clearly missed the boat with Elle, I wanted Ali checked out completely too.
Thankfully I have the best pediatrician around, in my humble opinion. He is so calm. Nothing ruffles him. I told him what happened on Saturday and he checked Ali out, she was fine. Nothing wrong, perfectly healthy, with a slight cough left over from her round of the flu.
He checked Elle and agreed that she had a mild case of bronchiolitis and that while her oxygen level was a little low (had come up a whole point from what it was on Saturday), she wasn't struggling, or in distress and she would be just fine. He made it all sound so much lighter, less scary.
So, she's home until Wednesday and we'll continue the breathing treatments but mostly it just needs time to heal and she should be fine.
Blech! It was so crazy to realize that while the rest of us had been so overtly sick, she was very quietly sicker than the rest of us.
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