We switched kids back on Saturday and Sunday morning Kal woke up with a cough. I didn’t think much of it. Chris and I debated on whether we should let her go to church or not. By 1pm she was playing around with Ben and Andrew so off to church we went. On the way to Grandma and Papa’s house for dinner Kal fell asleep (not super surprising since Kal and Hailey are little night owls and stayed up till 11ish…sorry Emily). She just seemed a little punky when she woke up. Not sick, but not running around crazy like she normally is. And then it began…
This is how Kallie was for the next 2 days. On the couch with little Ahba bear watching movies. (Little Ahba bear is a stuffed animal she got from my grandfather who passed away last year. She is always carrying it around and it gives her comfort). She had high fevers (highest was 104.6!), nasty chest cough – the kind where to cough so hard you vomit, and just no energy and no appetite. Tuesday night I was watching her breathe as she slept and noticed she was breathing very shallow and very rapid. It really scared me. The next morning (Wednesday) I called her doctor to see if I should bring her in. They said any compromise in breathing needs to be seen. Kallie, Andrew, Ahba bear, and I headed out the door to the doctors. When we got there she coughed so hard she vomited. You think that would get us back to a room right? NOPE! 40 minutes later we are still in a crowed waiting room. I felt really bad for the staff. They were so slammed by sick kids and impatient parents so I tried really hard not to be one. They just didn’t have enough rooms to put kids in and the ones in the rooms were so sick they took a long time!
We finally got called back and after a long wait in the waiting room I was anticipating a longer wait in the room for the doctor. As the nurse was taking Kal’s temp (103.7), heart rate, and oxygen she went and got a new finger thing (the thing they put on your finger to get your heart rate and oxygen) because she said it was reading off. She puts it on again and still the reading is everywhere from 40 –75. She leaves and says the dr. will be right in…and she wasn’t kidding. The dr comes right in and starts asking me 101 questions while looking Kallie over. She says she throat looks horrible, she is dehydrated, and her lungs sound horrible. She lets me know we need to go to the hospital to get a chest x-ray done, but before we can do anything we need to get Kal a breathing treatment to try and get her more air. After the breathing treatment her oxygen is still only 85. They tell us to go right to the hospital, get the x-ray, come right back and by then the meds in the breathing treatment should have kicked in. So the four of us Kallie, Andrew, Ahba bear, and I go to get the chest x-ray.
The chest x-ray comes back showing pneumonia and croup. Lovely. We get back to the office and have to wait again for a room. I was getting really tired by this point because Kallie was so sick and needed to be carried, but I also had Andrew who decided to be super crazy that day (actually he was really good for a 2 year old being stuck in a dr’s office and hospital for 5 hours….I think I was just a little overwhelmed with everything going on…I didn’t have any snacks for him or games, and the fact that he liked to run out of the office door and try to get the elevator alone…he only made it once). We go and get her oxygen checked again and it is still only at 87. Her fever has gone up to 104 again, her strep test came back positive and she is white as a ghost and just lethargic. I’m getting really worried. The dr is getting really worried. She goes and gets another dr to ask what he thinks. The take her oxygen again and it is only at 87 still. The drs come in and tell us they need to admit her to the hospital because she can’t keep her oxygen levels up…and the fever and dehydration isn’t helping either. When she falls asleep they oxygen rate will go down even more and that is what they are really afraid of. They want her on a monitor while she sleeps. She is ok while she is awake. They have a shot they can give her that they think will help, but they don’t know. They go back and forth and ask what I want to do. I ask them if it would be ok to give her the shot and then I could bring her back in a few hours and if she still can’t get her oxygen above 90 we can check her in. That sounds good to them since they are both the ones working the urgent care clinic that night. We finally head home 5 hours later.
At home we push more fluids and put damp clothes on her head. She actually starts to be looking a little better, but I’m not sure. We call our home teacher to come and help Chris give her a blessing then take her back to the doctors office. They check her oxygen again and it is 89. Dang. They told us it had to be at 90 to keep her out of the hospital. The check her temp, only 101. They check her oxygen again at it is at 90! I was so excited. Her doctor tells me I can take her home, but I have to check on her every hour throughout the whole night. If I see any problems I need to bring her in. I promise and we head home.
We check on Kal every hour all night long and she does ok. At one point she was breathing really shallow so Chris woke her up and made her take the inhaler he has for asthma. She was ticked at him for waking her up. That’s how we knew she was feeling a little better. By Saturday her fever had broke and she was feeling so much better, but still coughing and still tired. Today she is feeling good enough to fight with Andrew so we are on the mend!
Andrew – now that’s another story. While we were in the doctors office they gave Kal some juice boxes to try and get her to drink. She takes only a few sips then is done with them. Juice boxes are Andrew favorite thing. He can’t stop trying to get to this juice box and get a drink from it. I do a good job at keeping it high and out of his little hands, but when the doctor comes in to talk to me I lose focus and he gets the prized juice box. He drinks all of it. I knew we were in for it. Sure enough Andrew is our sick one now. He has a fever and nasty cough, but thankfully his strep test came back negative. He is feeling better but at night he just wakes up crying from coughing.
Hailey also got sick, but with the flu. The poor little girl just feels awful! So these cute three kids who played so nicely together for their sleepover also got all sick together. What sharers they are! Ben on the other hand is perfectly healthy!
Thank you to our all friends and family for all the love and prayers. One of my activity day girls came up to me in church today to tell me she was fasting for Kal. It just brought me to tears! The primary presidency brought over some fun things to keep her entertained while she laid in bed which she has played with for hours. Movies are only fun for so long. Hopefully this week we will get back to full health in time for all our family coming to visit and Ana coming home!
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