This whole thing started about a week earlier. Madison had come down with a lot of cold/flu/strep throat symptoms on Monday April 9th. She had a fairly high fever from 101-102, wouldn't eat, and pretty un-energetic. Statton and Cassidy followed with the same symptoms the following day. Thinking it was strep throat I took Madison into the local public health for a rapid strep test for $10. I figured if it was positive I could safely assume the twins had the same thing. Well the strep test was negative. The nurse at public health did say her throat was pretty red and that I should take her in. Not wanting to be the mom to take her kid into the doctor for every small fever and cough I opted to wait it out. Also my friend Amy's girls were also sick with the same thing and she had taken them in to a doctor and he told her to wait it out there was nothing they could treat. So also not wanting to incur a new patient fee of $125 just to be told wait it out I felt better with my decision. By Wednesday evening she was feeling better, fever was down, and eating again. The twins shortly followed and by Thursday we all felt well enough to go to the park. By Friday Madison had developed a small cough, no big deal I thought just residual from being sick. By Saturday she sounded croupy, developed another slight fever, not eating, and runny nose. No big deal I thought just developed a crappy cold now. Sunday night the nose was getting better. By Monday she was eating more, nose had stopped, fever was down, and cough wasn't terrible. Great! I thought. We are on the mend. Tuesday the 17th she was still feeling a little under the weather but I thought she was just still recovering from all the crap she'd had going on for the past week. Put her down for her usual nap at 1 and finally had to wake her about 3:30. When I did she was burning up! Took her temp and it was almost 104! I gave her some motrin and just sat and cuddled with her on my lap trying to figure out what I should do. Call and doctor and see if they can see her TODAY or just skip it and take her to the ER. Blair came home shortly after that and took one look at her and agreed she needed to be seen. So after a little discussion I opted to take her to the ER. They got her in right away and started taking vitals, temps, oxygen levels, blood, and x-rays. They could tell she was struggling to breath. Her sides would suck into her ribs when she would breathe and also the indention of her neck between her clavicles would suck in a bit which were all indications she was having a hard time breathing.(there is a clinical word for those but I can't remember them.) Sure enough her temp came back at over 104 and she was only in the low 90's high 80's for her oxygen levels. After all the tests it came back that she had a double right-sided pneumonia, rsv, and an ear infection. They told me they wanted to to admit her into the hospital for a few days so they could get her feeling better. I agreed this would be best. Oh my poor sick little girl! I had no idea she was so bad off.
These top two pictures were just some I snapped with my camera at the hospital that night after we got settled into our room. Oh poor thing. She has oxygen tubing in her nose which took her awhile to get use to. You can imagine an almost 2 yr old doesn't like things stuck up her nose and face. She is also bound up on her left arm where her IV is giving her antibiotics and fluids. She was just happy to lay on my most of the evening and watch tv. Poor Statton and Cassidy came in to visit us that night and were so distraught that I wasn't coming home with them.They were both in tears when they left. Blair's boss was super nice about Blair needing to take the day off the next day so he could watch the twins. By about 10 pm Madison was still awake in bed with me so I finally asked her if she wanted to go sleep in her own bed and she nodded yes. The hospital crib/beds for the kids are ginormous and the bars go up pretty high. I wasn't sure she would want to sleep in it but she was happy to lay in there by herself with the bars up (I only put the one side up half-way) and soon was sound asleep. They came in a few times in the night and checked her vitals and oxygen levels and even administered a few breathing treatments. Needless to say neither one of us got much sleep.
Blair came in that next morning with the twins to give me a break so I could go home and shower and take a little breather with the twins. The doctor had come in that morning and said the usual stay with pneumonia coupled with rsv is about 3-4 days. Crap I thought, we really are going to need to find someone to watch the kids for the next few days so Blair can go to work. I was looking up some daycares in the area and was going to check them out but I finally decided to go ask my friend Amy if she wouldn't mind watching them for us and she happily agreed.She even offered to let them spend the rest of that afternoon playing at her house so Blair and I could have some time with Madison. Thank heavens for good friends! So before I went back to the hospital I rounded up some toys for her and her pillow to sleep on instead of some folded up towels. So I went back to the hospital and Madison and Blair had just finished having a loooong nap together. Go figure! She was happy and trying to run around but you can only go so far when your attached to an iv pole and oxygen tubing into the wall. Let's just say it was hard keeping her unraveled from her cords the rest of the afternoon. Blair kept looking at me saying "she seems alright to me." I would just nod and smile. After about an hour I sent him to pick up the twins so Amy could have a break.
So later that evening after a not so appetizing dinner I called Blair to have him bring me something. He got there and shortly after that the doctor arrived and said that with all of Madison's vitals being so good today and her being able to keep her oxygen rate up on her own she felt comfortable in letting us go that night as long as I brought her in the next day to her office for a check-up. Yes I can do that! That would be great! The doctor said she was so amazed at her turnaround. So about 8pm we got released with a prescription for antibiotics and an albuterol inhaler. Oh I was so glad she was doing and feeling better and that we didn't have to stay another night and that I would be able to watch my own kids the next day. So we only ended up staying one night and a day at the hospital and were so glad for the recovery Madison made.
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