It kind of all started early in the morning, around 2 am to be exact, when I finally fell asleep. I have no idea why I couldn't sleep, but my mind was racing about Ryan's 30th birthday next month and other things I could do nothing about at that time of night. My thoughts were punctuated by Madeline's incessant coughing.
Anyway, I got up early so I could get everything together for our trip to the zoo that morning. We were meeting another mom and her two daughters who are about C's and M's ages. While there, I discovered I have laaaaaame animal-teaching skills. I'll illustrate it to you by recounting an actual conversation yesterday.
Tia was all, "Mom! Look! There are those blind fish!" Her mom was all, "Yes, Tia. Those fish can't see anything. They use a special sense to tell where they are going. Good job, Tia!" And Coralie was all, "Mom, can I go see the monkeys that work?"
I need to be better about giving the girls experiences like that, because Coralie loved it and obviously needs the education. Madeline just likes being outside and in her stroller. I tried to get some good pics of Madeline during her first zoo experience, but who knew that the pictures would turn out like every other walk we go on since she was in her stroller in all of them?
This is taking a long time to write.
Well, Madeline's cough persisted all day. I know it was annoying to her, and it was so frustrating to me because there was nothing I could do for her. I suctioned her nose and kept her hydrated, but that was the extent of my medical offerings.
When I got back from the gym that night, Ryan and the girls were playing in our room, watching the Serious Weather Event unfold on TV. About an hour later, as we were getting Madeline ready for bed, I noticed she was wheezing. I fed her a bottle while the Serious Weather Event turned into a Very Serious Weather Event.
I asked Ryan about Madeline's breathing, and he noticed that she was also breathing very shallow breaths. He told me to page our doctor, who told us to take her to the ER as soon as the tornado threat passed.
I couldn't wait, so after about thirty minutes of hand-wringing and snapping at each other, Ryan took Mads to the ER. They extracted a half cup of mucus from her chest-- A HALF CUP-- and did an x-ray to rule out pneumonia. Bottom line: they think she has asthma and a potential blockage in the vasculature in her lungs. The ER doc recommended a full upper-GI work-up to be done sometime in the near (but not immediate) future. We also have a prescription to visit the hospital's bronchiolitis clinic to have her suctioned out again any time in the next week.
I feel so bad for Madeline. Poor kid can't catch a break medical-wise. I think I checked on her every hour during the night. . . if you're a mom, you know why. If you're a dad, you think I'm crazy.
She seems to be better today, thankfully, but you can bet I am going to watch her like a hawk (or a monkey that works) all day.
So. How was your day yesterday? Please tell me you had a good one.
No comments:
Post a Comment