Croup

Baby Carmen had quite the adventure last month when she got sick. One I'm sure she'd rather forget and never take again. What started as a simple cold escalated into a much bigger problem that landed her in the hospital for a few days.

When I put Carmen to bed on a Saturday I could hear the difference in her breathing & had a feeling she would wake up one sick little girl. And true to my intuition she woke up miserable the next morning. Jim stayed home with her while I took the rest of the kids to church. During church I had the urge to check my cellphone (set to vibrate, but sitting in my purse on the floor)and wouldn't you know it, Jim was trying to call me at that very moment to inform me he was taking Carmen to the ER. Jim never takes such matters lightly so I knew he had good reason to. Once we were all there the Dr. checked out Carmen & diagnosed her with upper & lower respiratory infection. We were sent home.

The rest of the afternoon was hard and quite miserable for Carmen. She could not seem to sleep or eat and her breathing was quite labored off & on. Twice I saw her lips start to turn blue as she gasped for air. To make the whole situation a bit confusing she would go through spells of her breathing being quite calm & normal. We monitored her closely and toward evening began to wonder if we should wait this out at home or take her back to the hospital. Finally late in the evening I made the decision to take her in. What prompted me was when I looked down Carmen's throat, there was no throat to look down. Her airway was so swollen I could not see anything but a mass of tissue.

Since it was late, Jim stayed home with the kids while I went. Once we got the the ER, it was very busy and we had to wait for quite awhile in the waiting area. Carmen settled down to sleep, the first time since she had gotten up that morning. For awhile she seemed almost too calm, but when they called us back to be seen she woke up & went into respiratory distress. I was slightly glad for that, I wanted them to see her at her worst. Once we were through the initial check in process the pediatrician on call told them to admit her.

While we waited for that process (that took MANY hours) we had an x-ray taken on her throat. While her airway was never in danger, it was so swollen that the Dr. could not see down into her throat. An x-ray helped them see how much of an airway she did have. And just FYI, an x-ray on an infant at 1:30 a.m. is not a walk in the park. Once that ordeal was over she needed labs drawn. Of all the children, Carmen has horrible veins. I know this from plenty of previous experience. I warned them before they started and still had to endure the process of them poking and poking AND POKING at her to find a vain. Once they did, they told me that while the got the blood they needed, her vain had burst in the process. (I'm getting tired just re-living this process while typing it out). That blood test came back with an elevated white blood count. So that meant she needed an i.v. More poking at such an insane hour of the morning. She had had very little sleep I had had none.

We finally got taken upstairs & into our room at 4 a.m. We both finally got about 2 hours of solid sleep. Once her regular pediatrician came in he explained in great detail what was going on, she had croup. Which croup can have many levels of intensity, Carmen's was obviously on the worst end. He ordered a round of strong medicine to help combat her breathing issues and whatever else infection she had brewing in her little body. He also got he started on just plain i.v. fluids. After nearly 10 hours, she had yet to even wet her diaper. Of course, it couldn't be that simple though, the i.v. they had put in had gotten tangled up and had to be pulled out and another one inserted. Even with nurses from the pediatric unit it took them several tries on both arms to find a vain that would work. I was beyond myself at this point, tears wouldn't even do me justice as I watched this whole process again.

Back at home, Jim took care of usual Monday business & did a fine job of being Mr. Mom. He got the kids up & ready & out the door for school. He took Andrew to swimming lessons. All of this being a slight advantage since he doesn't get to do the day to day things with the kids that I always take care of. Finally, he arrived at the hospital to release me for some R & R back home.

With the medicine & fluids Carmen rebounded and looked much better later in the day. The next night in the hospital she slept or 9 hours straight. After 48 hours, she was back to healthy status & released from the hospital. It was quite the ordeal though, even though she was physically healthy she was still pale & over tired for the next few days. Soon she was back to our precious baby girl.

Of course you know, no event goes without a bunch of picture taking. Warning though: some might make you squirm and just break your heart.

First ER trip:
Finally asleep, this was taken at some early morning hour.

First i.v. put in.

Finally up in our room asleep.

Second i.v. put in. They had to put it in the bend of her wrist so she had to have it splint to prevent her from moving it. Not to mention she tried to pull it out on more than one occasion. She really was gonna have none of this & let the nurses know this too!

They made her arm all pretty and extra secure. I'm not kidding you we thought we'd have to superglue it on her, she was intent on taking it out.

We were able to take her on short wagon walks. She really liked that. A bright spot in her otherwise miserable stay at the hospital. She had to stay hooked up to her i.v. though. When we started on our first walk it made me reflect on how lucky we were. I thought of all the terminally ill children who have this as a way of life. We have in fact, been very blessed to have extremely healthy children. Sure we have this bout of sickness here & there, but count our blessings that it's all we've had to battle. Just a bit of perspective.

Waiting to come home from the hospital. A much different attitude from when we walked in.