Andrea's First Hospital Stay

Well, we finally got home around 5:00 p.m. this evening, and having had some time to rest, I'm ready to post about what's happened over the past 48 hours.

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Sunday Night: Andrea had been unhappy all day with a bad cough and runny nose. We had spent part of the afternoon at the funeral home, but left early because Andrea was getting so miserable. She didn't nap that afternoon, and was so exhausted by the time we got home, that she had a late nap, at about 5:30 p.m. Of course, that meant getting her to bed at 8:00 was a struggle. On top of that, her cough had worsened considerably; we were up all night, rocking her and comforting her.

Monday Morning : Andrea was irritable and coughing terribly from the moment I got her up. She cried and cried, and nothing would console her. We had already made plans to leave her with the babysitter while we were at Uncle Mick's funeral, and she seemed to perk up a bit when we dropped her off at the sitter's. When we called to check up on her around 11:30 a.m., she was doing okay. No naps, but eating and drinking.

Monday Afternoon: We went to pick Andrea up from the babysitter's after the internment at the cemetery, to bring her to the luncheon with us. She seemed okay, until we got her out to the car. Then she started to cry uncontrollably again. About 5 minutes after we headed out, she fell asleep, but I could hear she was breathing rapidly and was really wheezy. We decided to head back to Windsor, and take Andrea to the walk-in clinic.

As soon as the triage nurse saw her, they put her in a room. She was lethargic, and labouring to breathe. All she would do was cry. When the nurse and doctor came in, and looked at Andrea with her clothes off, they immediately contacted the hospital pediatrician who was on call. Andrea's oxygenation level was low, and she was breathing so hard and so rapidly that you could see her little ribs sucking in and out (there's a technical term for that, I forget what it is. Some kind of "retraction"). Anyway, they hooked her up to a machine to give her a Ventolin treatment (like an oxygen mask, but mixed with meds to open the lungs). She perked up a bit after that. Then they sent her for x-rays, which they said were (strangely) okay. However, they diagnosed her right away with Bronchiolitis, and then took her to another room to give her an oxygen mask. Each mask seemed to perk her up a bit; by the end of this one, she was talking and trying to get into stuff, and was more like herself. But because she was still sounding wheezy, and still doing that "retraction" thing (although the braething rate was better), they called the hospital and set up a direct-admission for her. And because they wanted her to stay on the oxygen, Andrea and I got an ambulance ride to the hospital, while Daddy drove along behind us.

Throughout all this, Andrea was so good. She kept her masks on, and once she had perked up, was making chit-chat and flirting with everyone. She enjoyed the ambulance ride; they attached her own car seat to the stretcher, and she sat up and looked at all the interesting lights and equipment in the ambulance.

When we got to the hospital, we by-passed Emergency and went straight up to a room in the Pediatric ward. Andrea and I hung out on a bed, answered a ton of questions to several doctors and nurses, and finally settled in when Daddy got upstairs.

Monday Night: Poor Andrea, not only did she have to put up with oxygen/Ventolin masks and constant poking and prodding, but all kinds of other irritating procedures. She got an ankle full of hospital bracelets, a blood test, and a huge IV board put into her right hand. Her right hand was so taped up that she couldn't use it.

Even with that, she was constantly picking/biting at her IV line (not because it hurt, but because she wanted to play with it), so they tried putting a sock over it. She looked like a little amputee!Well, that lasted all of 15 minutes. She just pulled it right off. So, they had to tape right over her IV line, and remove it when necessary.

The night was a blur. Doctors and nurses were constantly coming in and out to check on her, and give her medication. Andrea slept fitfully; she had a really hard time going to sleep, and woke up a bunch of times because of her coughing. Her cries were heartbreaking. A volunteer had brought in a rocking chair for us, and Daddy rocked and rocked and rocked her until she would fall back asleep. Mommy got to sleep on the hospital bed across the room (thank goodness, we never ended up with a neighbour, although it was close--they also needed a crib, but we were using it). Poor Daddy slept on two regular chairs, sitting up, with his head propped on a pillow against the wall.

Tuesday Morning: Andrea was awake around 5:00 a.m., so they came and did her vital signs check-up, gave her another Ventolin mask, and we also went and did the RSV test. It was really nasty. They stuck a little catheter in Andrea's nose and sucked out a bunch of mucous. Goodness, did she scream. It wasn't that it was so painful, but it feels weird, and kind of takes their breath away for a second.

Around 9:00, we got a chance to take Andrea down to the Playroom. It was really nice. There was a great range of toys. Some Clown Doctors happened to stop in, and Andrea was intrigued by them. She wasn't scared at all when they came and talked to her; she just smiled, and kept on playing. I didn't take any pictures of them, because Andrea had some other little friends she was playing with at the time; but I sneaked a couple pics of her playing with the toys, later.

Unfortunately, later that morning, we found out that Andrea's test was positive for RSV, so she couldn't leave her room. This was tough for all of us, because as her medicine kicked in, she got restless, and wanted to GO, whereas Daddy and I were taking turns napping! So, this was a familiar scene:

"Hello? Is anybody there? Please, let me out!"

Tuesday Afternoon: Finally, around 4:00 p.m. or so, a nurse came in with our paperwork and said we could go home. We were so happy. I have never seen Daddy pack so fast before!

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Here's the latest/summary:

• of course everyone fell in love with Andrea, especially the young resident doctors, who wanted to stay and play with her :))
• the doctors say Andrea probably has asthma, and she may contract Bronchiolitis again
• they gave us two puffers (one steroid, one Ventolin) for home use for the next week or so, as well as a liquid antibiotic
• Andrea will see the family doctor later this week
• right now she is sleeping well, and we hope she will continue to have a good night
• Mommy is taking the rest of the week off to fuss over Baby, and recover from the last 48 hours

Here's a video I got of Andrea, as she had one of her Ventolin treatments: http://media.putfile.com/Ventolin-Mask

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Finally, a special thank you to Gram and Grandpa G., who spent a couple of hours with us last night; Grandpa G., for stopping in again this morning; and Gram G. for having supper ready for us when we got home tonight. We know it's been a difficult week for you, too, so we appreciate your efforts all the more. :))