So my little girl caught her first virus. I noticed, since coming back from Edmonton, she has been progressively getting more and more unhappy and sickly. The real tipper was the fact that she started crying during feeding and not wanting more than 2 oz at a time. She normally is a guzzle guts so this was totally out of character for her. Yesterday was the absolute worst day so far. She went to bed as per norm and woke up at her usual 4am feeding and that is pretty well where the day began. She screamed non stop for about three hours and it was a type of scream that only mean one thing....pain. She was drooling like mad as well so I called the Dr. and they got me an appointment within an hour. Once there, he pretty well rattled all her symptoms off: Fever, drooling, painful eating, vomiting, gagging and coughing. He said there is a major virus going around that is a version of Croup. He gave her some antibiotics (steroid and such) because these little guys are at a real risk for pneumonia :-(. I was told if she gets worse at all to bring her to Emergency. She was a trooper for him and refused to cry when he was going over her (even with a tongue depressor). He wanted to hear her cry but no way...she almost mustered up a smile but she was in too much pain. He said that this is the kind of pain that takes adults down for a week or more as it is worse than your average throat infection. Poor little girl. The low point for her and I was when she forcefully threw up in my arms and it went back into her little eyes. She was blinking like mad trying to get the liquid out of her eyes. She panicked of course but then she looked into my eyes and smiled the most pathetic looking smile I have ever seen as if to say...I will be OK Mom. I was not handling this well as I was soaking her with my own tears but this little grin gave me the strength to carry on. It tore my heart out. I changed and washed her and just held her forever and I could tell that it hurt every time she swallowed. She would try to sleep and she would wake up in a full on scream and then go back to sleep. The strange thing is the fact that this has not messed with her schedule as she is still sleeping throughout the night...the Dr. was shocked and told me I was very lucky as her little throat is very red and swollen and he would have banked on screaming all night. He gave me some pointers to get through this next little while (this can last even a couple of months although I think we caught it fast enough). He told me to get a cold mist humidifier, prop up the head of her bed and if she is in a coughing fit to take her outside to inhale the cold air. She is back in her little bassinet by the bed for now so I can really keep an eye on her. I propped her head up and had the cold mist in the room and she slept from 8:30pm - 4am. The 4am bottle ended with her spitting the entire thing up so she was up and hungry at 6am. The drooling thing is because it is too hard to swallow according to her Doc. so she rather let it run down her face. He is a great Doctor and I am lucky to have him for sure. He commented that she likes her food...then he grabbed her thighs and chuckled and said it's ok. hahaha.
I think she was excited to be next to me in her little bed again. I would peak in if I heard anything (you will remember from a previous post she talks almost non-stop when she is awake) and she would greet me with this huge grin. She is doing much better today although it is still written all over her that she is not feeling well. She is napping now and I haven't heard any screams so I am crossing my fingers the worst has passed. Her fever has broken and the redness in her eyes and cheeks have subsided. She took 4 oz at 9am and her medicine and she kept that down...thank God as this med is a one time dose...liquid gold. ;-) She started to really rub her eyes, gag and refused a couple of bottles at the tail end of the Edmonton trip, so maybe she picked something up there and I got her home in time for the worst of it. She hasn't been out of the house at all since coming home until yesterday for the appointment but I guess we could have brought something home on our clothes. Who knows...
I really would have preferred her first illness to be a common cold, but what can you do. :-(
Keep your fingers crossed she will get over this quickly.
Shari
