Friday night was any normal Friday around here - we had our movie/pizza night then we dyed Easter eggs. Before putting Avery to bed, we heard a touch of croup cough but thought nothing of it....
See, our kids have had croup DOZENS of times. Yes, dozens. It is not new to us and we know how to handle it at home. Usually between the months of Sept - March, many of our nights (middle of the night to be exact) are spent rotating taking our kids outside (bundled up) to breathe in the cold air then straight up to the bathroom where there is a steamy shower going to breathe that in. It seems to affect the girls way more than it ever has Brayden. The dr tells us their airways are very narrow which makes them more susceptible to croup.
Anyway, back to Friday night. It was about 11pm and I had just fallen sleep on the couch watching Dateline (which I told myself to stop doing because I always have crazy nightmares after!) when I heard Avery start her croup coughing in her room. I looked at the monitor and saw her going from sitting up to laying down while having a coughing fit. But this time, it sounded different. After each cough (which is really a bark) I could hear her wheezing and struggling to breathe.
I immediately ran up to her room and picked her up and with every breath, she would wheeze in. I took her to show Rick and we looked and her chest was caving in. That's something we are told to always look for and almost all other times our kids' have had croup, this has not happened. (Only one other time we had an experience like this with Ella) I knew right away it wasn't good and called the dr. Before waiting for them to call back I just made the call to take her to the ER. The hubs stayed home and off we went.
On the way to the hospital the dr called and said yes, go to the ER because she was most likely experiencing moderate respiratory distress.
At this point I'm panicking a little because all I hear is wheezing/gasping from her and I know she is struggling to breathe. I parked and ran us into the ER - we got there about 11:30pm.
Friday night at the ER is the place to be, let me tell you. There was a waiting room FULL of people and all the ER rooms were already in use.
They immediately brought us to this side room by registration and within minutes Avery was given her first dose of Albuterol
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Minutes after that, they brought back a liquid steroid and hooked her up to a pulse ox.
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At this point I'm thinking, OK, she just had a breathing treatment and a steroid, we'll probably be good to go pretty soon and not even need to go into a room in the ER!
Boy, was I wrong. By 12:30 we had a room and another does of Albuterol was given. The ER dr said she wanted to wait the 3 hours until the medicine wore off to see if her symptoms were any better. They did not want to send us home thinking all is good then just have the medicine wear off and be back in the same situation.
So for 3 hours my girl had to also receive an oxygen mist.
All through the 3 hours the nurses would stop in and say she was looking great and we would probably get to go home. She was resting nicely on me and finally even fell asleep. Her chest didn't seem to be caving in anymore and I too thought we would be good to go.
But when the dr came in around 4am, he said no. As soon as Miss A woke up, he could tell she was still using her stomach muscles to breathe and was wheezing a little and he did not feel comfortable sending us home. We were going to be admitted. But not to the hospital we were at, that hospital does not have a great pediatrics unit, so we had to be transferred to another hospital.
My naive self thought, OK, I'll just drive us there! The dr then proceeded to tell me that couldn't happen and we would take an ambulance. I started panicking again thinking "oh gosh, is she going to be OK?" I mean, I knew deep down she was, but I kept worrying it would get worse again. I also think the lack of sleep was getting to me and my emotions were everywhere.
Before leaving for the other hospital, Avery received another Albuterol treatment.
(I only took the below picture because I knew she was OK)
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| First and I pray her last ambulance ride |
Once we got to the hospital, we got settled into her room and the nurse told me a dr would be in soon to see us. By this point, Avery was seeming much better but still had the croup cough, just not as bad. Basically we were just there for observation.
When the dr came in, Miss A was sleeping on me and he stood at a distance and basically let the nurse do all the talking. I just did not like this dr at all. All he said was "Ok we will see how she is later in the day and decide if you'll be staying over night" - Not once did he come look at her, he never checked her, nothing. I'm sorry, but we were transferred here because their PICU was great and I just couldn't believe the dr didn't even examine her!!
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| This Mama was SO tired |
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By the afternoon, Miss A had some pep back in her step!
I am sure croup is not over at our household, but I really hope and pray it never gets this bad (or worse) again.
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