Pneumonia

It’s been a bit of a doozy around here. Olivia started getting a runny nose, cough, congestion thing on Christmas, which wasn’t anything new, and really, I think she’s been putting her colds into hibernation for a few days, maybe a week, before bringing it back. Wash, rinse, repeat since the beginning of November.

Of course, her getting sick means Chris gets sick too, and putting the two of them together, one being a baby—coughing, whining and moaning—and the other, well, being a baby and coughing and so on…. geez. It’s been rough. I’m healthy as usual. Not that I want to jinx anything, but my immune system is loads better than these two fools I’m living with, so yeah. Did I ever tell you I hate this time of year?

Anyway, last Wednesday, the day after Christmas, Olivia was hacking a bit but was doing fine. We were out running errands and stopped into Kohl’s to find a new airy fryer because the one we got for Christmas wasn’t working correctly. Chris took Olivia to the bathroom and when she came back she kept shivering and saying how cold she was. We ran off to Target and she was saying the same thing.

“Poor sweetie,” I said, kissing her head while we turned down the kitchen electronics aisle. She felt warm. Well crap. I tell Chris to nix the air fryer thing and order it online and we head back to the car. I slid into the passenger side and Chris is in the process of lifting Olivia into her car seat. She pukes. Car seat and semi-newish car saved. Coat is fucked. Anxiety spikes.

“Mama, I twew up in DA PARKING LOT!” she’ll repeat to me the next morning and for the next week.

All I’m thinking is, fuck another stomach bug. 3 in the last two and a half months. She does pretty well at home, and we are able to get her to bed. She woke up again at 10:30 saying her stomach hurt. Puked again. I had taken an anti-anxiety as soon as we got home to keep my anxiety from getting to panic levels like it always does, so I did pretty well. Luckily, she didn’t throw up again and slept the whole night. I didn’t feel comfortable giving her meds for her fever since she was vomiting, but she was able to sleep OK.

The next day, Thursday, she spiked a fever around 11:00 pm when she had woken up crying. We gave her some Motrin because it was over 103° under her arm, which meant it was more like 104. She wanted Chris to lay with her in bed, and when he came to bed around 1:00 am, he said her fever seemed way down. She did get some mini popscicles out of the deal.

Friday Chris had off because we were supposed to be traveling for his family’s Christmas out of state, but after her puking Wednesday, we had called it off. She was doing good, fever-free all day, and I left in the afternoon to go write at a coffee shop. I needed to get my last article of the month in by the 31st, so I was on crunch time. Chris texted me around 4 and said she was burning up again after her nap. Above 103 again. He gave her Motrin. I got home at five and called the triage nurse. Not the most helpful call I’ve been on. But then I noticed her right eye was kind of goopy which was new. I noticed her breathing was a little faster than normal, and I thought it was a little concerning, but I also knew she had a fever and that can increase respiration. I was luckily able to make an office appointment with a pediatrician the next morning, so she could get checked out.

For the record, I rarely bring her in when she’s sick. Maybe it’s the nurse in me, but I can count on one hand how many visits she’s had to the doctor while sick. But I didn’t like the eye goop, even though her eye wasn’t red. Her fever went down again with the Motrin and she was able to sleep all night.

Saturday morning she woke and I knew she was a lot sicker. She started out coughing so hard she puked. Her eyes were droopy and she just kind of seemed out of it. I kept watching the clock, willing time to go faster so we could get to our 10:40 appointment.

At 9:00 I counted her respirations while she sat on the couch next to me while watching TV. I counted 47 and pediatric nursing had never been my forte, but I knew that was high. Chris came down the hall after his shower and I told him we needed to go to Children’s. Actually, I was wondering if this was RSV, but again, pediatrics isn’t my thing. He got her ready while I ran around grabbing energy bars, water, a book, crap you need when you’re stuck in an ER for who knows how long.

I rode in the back with her which she thought was pretty awesome, and did fine during the drive to Minneapolis. I said a silent prayer when we walked into the ER and found it empty. We immediately were seen. Her oxygen sats were sitting at about 96-97% so that was good. Her fever was back to 103, so she was given Tylenol once we had a bed. I felt bad, but also didn’t want her to have medication while we were at home to mask whatever was going on. The doctor also hit her with Motrin, which she says she doesn’t do often, but she wanted to get her fever down so she could see her respirations without the fever’s influence. Her sats were down to 93-94%. The doctor also thought her right ear looked infected, which sucks because Olivia didn’t show any signs of it bothering her. Like a mom, I flushed with guilt anyway, like somehow I was supposed to know different. She also thought Olivia had an eye infection. A nice trifecta of sick squishy toddler.

She did phenomenal during her chest X-ray. Like the idiot infertile I am, I always have to play the “possibly pregnant” person, so I had to stand out in the hallway, but Chris got to be right at her head and said she did great. The tech gave her six stickers which she promptly gave half to each of us and told us we needed to wear them. No, she didn’t want one. Always the generous one, this girl.

And then we waited. And waited. The emergency room is all about hurrying up and waiting. Finally, the doctor came back and said she had pneumonia. A pretty good one in her right upper lobe. She showed us the chest X-ray. She didn’t like her oxygen sats and said she wanted to start the antibiotic now. She was still unsure if Olivia would need to be admitted, but she was hoping we could manage this at home. With her low 02 sats, she was concerned that while Olivia was sleeping, they’d drop even lower. She suggested if it was possible, Olivia take a little nap here so she could observe her while she slept.

And then she left, we dimmed the lights and Olivia fell asleep curled into Chris’s arms.

Yeah no. Homegirl wasn’t going to sleep. Even when I squeezed into the hospital bed with her. She did, however, kick off her oxygen monitor no less than 76 times, though.

So she lay against Chris watching Coco on TV, and I sat in the hardback chair, ignoring the fact that it was 12:30 and all I had eaten that day was a Cliff bar. And I prayed. And text my mom.

After more waiting, she got the antibiotic and some snacks, and the doctor came back to check her. Her sats were hanging out around 96% and I wasn’t feeling very optimistic, but she said she felt comfortable discharging her. Thank God! We got our discharge papers and were out of there a little after 1:15. She seemed so much better already.

We made it just over three years without any antibiotics, and ironically, the one she’s on is one I’m allergic to. It’s weird, but also dumb at the same time, because even if we did share 100% of our genetics, me having an allergy to a med doesn’t mean my daughter will. But so far, she’s doing well on it.

In fact, she woke up the next morning back to her usual self. Her eye goop had disappeared, her fever never came back, and she was racing around like a psycho, so the antibiotics did wonders. At her follow up appointment, we were told the coughing could go on for the next month, but that she was on the mend. Her 02 sats seemed a little low again, but the doctor was OK with it. She’s been dealing with diarrhea off and on, so she’s back on the probiotics I can’t seem to give her consistently, and eating yogurt daily. She hates the taste of the antibiotic, another reason I’m glad we didn’t have to do this before.

“YEW! DIS MEDICINE TASTES YUCKY! I DON’T LIKE IT!” She pinches up her face and chugs her water—what she has done every day twice a day, for the last five days. Only I swear she’s getting more dramatic, her face pinching more and more with every dose. Halfway to go.

New Year’s was spent eating pizza, Olivia throwing a massive tantrum, a fight with Chris because we apparently aren’t on the same parenting page, and me drinking three flutes of champagne by myself listening to Chris cough on the couch across from me.

It’s been fun around here. Oh, and Chris just finally went to the doctor and he’s now on his own antibiotics for a sinus infection. Olivia feels Really Important now taking her medication with her daddy. Whatever works. I’m having another glass of wine. Let me know when it’s spring.