He woke up early Saturday morning (at 11 weeks old) with a yucky cough. It scared Brent & I, as he hadn't been coughing at all and all of the sudden he was coughing enough to wake us all up at 3 AM! I scooped him out of the bassinet and held him upright until it stopped. That morning, he continued to cough, but it wasn't too bad. We called the hospital's help line and asked what to do. They told us that since he didn't have a fever, just to keep a humidifier going and to keep his nose sucked out, and that this was just going around.
So we made it through the weekend, but by Monday he was quite a bit worse. I called the pediatrician and they told me the same thing, that if he didn't have a fever that there was nothing they could do for him. I wanted him to be seen, but I definitely didn't want to get him out to go to the doctor's office when the flu and everything else is going around if they weren't going to be able to help him. So my grandma stayed with him while I went to work Monday & Tuesday. But his cough got to where he was having trouble breathing and eating because of it, still with no fever.
Wednesday morning, I decided it was enough. My little Carter was not being himself at all, looked so miserable and lifeless, and was barely eating because he would get in these horrible coughing fits that felt like they lasted five minutes. So I called the doctor & got us in after lunch because we had gotten some ice/snow Tuesday night and I didn't want to be driving him around on that. I felt like we were the pity party in the waiting room. Carter would start coughing and the other parents would look and say "poor baby" and "he's too little to be sick!" When the doctor saw us, she told us it was likely RSV and she swabbed his throat to test for sure & gave us a breathing treatment to give him while we waited for the results. It came back positive, so she told us our options. We could either be hospitalized and they would put him on an IV & give him the breathing treatments there, or I could do them at home and keep a super close eye on him and bring him back the next day to check for improvement. She said she was on call for the ER, so if I was to need to bring him in because he was worse or spiked a fever or just scared us, we could easily see her.
 |
| Sick baby Carter with Auntie Claire at the doctor's office |
When we finally left there, we ran through a drive-thru for lunch & got some gas and headed to pick up the breathing treatments/medicine. Well, we got to the pharmacy and Carter was hungry. So I pulled into the parking lot, climbed into the back seat and nursed him. Then I got him all buckled back in and pulled into the pharmacy drive thru. There were several cars in line, so we waited & finally got to the window. The woman informed me that they were at a different location across town.
I was already pretty worn out, but I was just happy to not be in the hospital with baby boy, so I didn't get too upset. I went ahead and stopped at the medical equipment place to purchase the breathing treatment machine and that took forever because they had to call my insurance to see how much I could purchase for through them. I ended up buying a used machine, then the woman had to show me all of the parts and how to use it. Thank goodness for my little sister sitting with Carter in the car all of this time!
Finally, we were headed to the other pharmacy to get the medicine. We waited in that drive-thru & got to the window and the girl had me his antibiotic but not the medicine for the breathing treatments! They were out, and would have them in within 24 hours. I told her I HAD to have them now, so she so nicely offered that she could call the pharmacy across town (that I had just come from) to see if they had it. Of course, I had to have it, so I said sure. She told me they had it, so I turned around to go back across town to pick it up.
When I got back to that pharmacy, I stood in line, explained that the other pharmacy had transferred it over because they were out, and the girl told me it would be 20-30 minutes!!! I was about to lose it at this point, but I also needed to pump, so I went out to the car & found a corner of the parking lot to pump in. Thankfully, Carter was just snoozing away all of this time, so my sister was able to just sit with him. When I went back in, I stood in line again, and the girl told me that it was ready but the pharmacist just had to okay it, so she told me to stand off to the side until it was done. I was about ready to give up and just go have Carter admitted to the hospital at that point. I ended up waiting about ten more minutes for the pharmacist to okay it, and by the time that happened, everyone was getting off work and the line was super long. I had to wait for 6 people to get their medicines before I finally was able to check out and head home!
So, it was a long day to say the least. Carter's appointment was at 12:45 and we didn't get home until nearly 6. We have been giving him the breathing treatments every 4 hours, and he doesn't completely hate them. Thankfully, at night, he sleeps through them! When he is awake, he will sit through them, but he just wants to put his hands up and pull the mask around. Sometimes he will smile behind the mask and it is just too sweet!
 |
| During a breathing treatment |
 |
| Feeling better...cuddling with Daddy |
No comments:
Post a Comment