Go away sickness update

We found out yesterday morning that Ethan tested positive for RSV from the nose swab they took in the ER on Friday night. We were obviously not happy to hear that and also knowing that Lila most likely had and has RSV as well.

I'm now coming down with it too. It appears to hit hardest on Days 4 and 5. My mother in law has it now and she's on Day 4 and she's miserable. I started feeling off, runny nose and slight cough last night. I feel fine for the most part but I know it's coming.

There's really no treatment for RSV, except if it effects you in a way where you need nebulizers, albuterol, etc to help you breathe. Ethan responded well to the extra albuterol and 4 treatments a day and once he got over the Day 5 hump he gradually got better. We'll be keeping him out of school for the rest of the week so the RSV doesn't just keep running around the school. Evidently you can get it over and over again.

As of now, Lila is on the mend as well. She still has a wet cough and a runny nose, but she's much better. She has what I would call a regular cold now and it's Day 11 for her and Day 9 for Ethan. Ethan still has a wet cough, runny nose and will continue on 4 treatments a day until the cough is completely gone.

Ken has pretty much been sick since the first of the year. He thinks he's gotten sick 3x with different colds and now feel nauseous at work today.

Sickness, be gone already!

Go away sickness!

While I was away on my girls weekend on Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend, Ken sent me a message on Saturday saying that Lila had woken up that morning covered in vomit from coughing. She didn't really have a fever so we weren't worried. We figured she had what Ken had earlier in the week.

Monday morning Ethan woke up with it as well. When I got home later in the afternoon I took their temps and they were at almost 100 so nothing to really worry about. We gave them Benadryl and Motrin and put them to bed

By Tuesday, Lila didn't feel too warm but I took her temp anyways and it was around 100.5. Ethan still seemed fine just a bad cough and low grade fever. Lila ended up throwing up a bit from getting upset and from a coughing fit.

On Wednesday both kids threw up from gagging while coughing or at least that's what we thought. Lila had a fever of 102 so we treated it with Motrin and she just cuddled with Grammy and me all day. I took the day off to be with the kids.

By Thursday Lila's fever came back at around 101. I had planned on taking her to the doctor that afternoon but she perked up around lunch time so I put it off.

On Friday we kept Ethan out of school for the 2nd day. Both kids woke up continuing to have a nasty cough. Ethan's cough kept him coughing and waking him up because it was so bad. Lila seemed to sleep okay at night. Ethan ran around like normal until about 2pm. At 2pm he laid down on the couch and immediately zonked out. He woke up a bit later and asked me where Grammy was, got upset, then promptly fell back to sleep. He hardly ever just falls asleep like that or even anywhere but his bed or ours.

By 3pm he really needed a treatment and I could hear him wheezing. His respirations were high and he kept sucking in his belly to breathe. I called Kaiser's advice line and talked with a nurse to see if we should bring him into the ER or wait for an after hours clinic appointment on Saturday.

After speaking with the advice nurse for about 20-30 minutes, counting his respirations 3x we determined that the oncall doctor, the nurse and myself didn't feel comfortable waiting for the morning.

So we headed to the ER. He coughed and wheezed all the way to the hospital and fell asleep almost immediately. At this point he'd pretty much been asleep since 2pm only waking up to take do his treatment at 4pm.

At the ER they took his temp in his armpit at 99.9 and his oxygen level was between 90 and 93%. They put us into a room. The doctor came in about 15 minutes later and examined him saying he felt warmer than 99.9 so she ordered a rectal temp. She looked at his ears and said that he definitely had one ear infection, if not two.

30 minutes later the nurse came in and gave him Tylenol and an albuterol nebulizer treatment. He perked up from the albuterol. Before this he had been laying on the gurney asleep or half asleep breathing hard. They then came in to take his temp which I thought was odd since they had given him Tylenol just 30-40 minutes earlier. Seemed kinda backwards to me. Even still his temp was 99.8. So my guess is he was really around 101 when we came in.

After this we were sent to xray to rule out pseumonia. 15 minutes later the doctor had looked at the xray and talked with Ethan's pulmonologist and they had decided that because his xray was clear that we should be prescribed a steroid for the wheeze and antibiotics for his ear infection.

After our 3 1/2 hour stay at the ER and waiting for Ethan's prescriptions we headed to McDonald's to pick up dinner and got home about 1130.

We ate, went to bed and were up at 2am to give Ethan an hour long treatment which helped but didn't change much. Ethan was wide awake at 7am (so much for sleeping in). I went to pick up Lila from my parents house about 9am and Ken laid down with Ethan for 90 minutes, got him up for a treatment.

By noon he was still refusing to eat and was really tired again so he laid down with me for a three hour nap!!! By the time he woke up for his afternoon treatment he had slept 4.5 hours out of the 8.5 hours he'd been awake and spent 2 hours of the time awake doing treatments.

The good news was that after that nap he started moving around and playing again. Since yesterday his appetite still isn't the greatest but he's not laying around either.

We had an interesting time attempting to get the liquid steroid down him. We mixed it with apple juice, then orange juice, then sugar this morning. Each time he either refused or threw it up. Thankfully he doesn't appear to really need it. We're still trying to give it to him but I think the wheezing has subsided quite a bit or even gone away altogether.

Since yesterday Lila has been whiny and clings to me. She doesn't really want daddy, just mommy. I think I'll need to take her in tomorrow to see if she has an ear infection. Until then there will be a lot of mommy/Lila time. Thankfully she's playing with Ethan now and giving me a rest. I have managed not to catch this horrible cold or flu. I feel a little weird today with drainage at the back of my throat, but otherwise fine. The test is still out as far as whether Ethan's got RSV, influenza or just a nasty virus. We should know today or tomorrow which one it is.

So that's what's been going on with us over the last week. Sorry for the long post. I'm hoping to look back on this posts after some time has passed. It's long so I can remember what happened later.

Sickness go away!

Ethan's sick with his 3rd cold for the season. We have been lucky that it's only been 3x since October. We always worry that a cold could turn into something worse, but also try to remain hopeful that it won't.

Right now, he has a wet cough, congestion and a runny nose. He's not drinking as much as he should and his eating is okay, but not great. I am more concerned than I was yesterday, but still trying to take it a day at a time. I need to make a call tomorrow to the pediatric pulmonary nurse to give her an update on him.

In the meantime, we have been told to do Hypersal 2x a day and Pulmozyme 1x a day through his nebulizer. We also are being told to do his vest 3-4x a day. It makes it difficult to do anything but just stay home, but we probably shouldn't go anywhere anyways. Ethan is grouchy and cries to held. Not typical of Ethan at all. He's usually fairly happy most of the time (unless you tell him no or take something away).

It's so sad to listen to him on the baby monitor coughing away and wincing right after. His throat must be hurting him. His voice is raspy.

Please God, let him get better.

We're sick!!!

About a week ago Ethan woke up around 10pm, which he rarely does, crying. He was fussy for about an hour and finally calmed down around 11pm. The next morning I noticed he was congested. Ugh, a cold! For the last week he has been sick. We've used a ton of Boogie Wipes, which I thought I'd never buy, but they work. Now we have been told by the Pulmonologist office to begin nebulizers and to add a vest treatment to the middle of the day. He is not weezing or having a hard time breathing. He is his normal cheery self and is eating like usual (a lot!). He's just sick!
On Thanksgiving day he started to have a wet cough so that's what made me think to call the nurse on Monday to see about starting nebs. We now are doing nebulizers 2x a day for a total of 45 minutes at a time and his vest treatments 3x a day for 15 minutes at a time. I realize that in the CF world spending 2 hours and 15 minutes a day doing treatments is nothing so I should be grateful. However, it still sucks! Ethan hates the nebs. He won't stay still for long enough and the only thing that really works is turning on Baby Mozart. He has to watch it over and over again because that's the only baby video we have. I'm looking into finding another show on Netflix streaming so I don't lose my mind watching Baby Einstein.
Luckily the nebulizer treatments will be over when his cold is gone. He's had it for 1 week now and the nurse says that most colds last 10-14 days. If it's not gone by then we'll most likely have to go in and be seen by one of the pulmonologists. I don't foresee that happening, but it could. For now, we're doing as the doctor orders.

Snot, Formula & Medicine

Ethan has been sick with a cold for the last few days. He got it from me and I was pretty miserable for about a week before I started seeing that he had one too! It is virtually impossible to keep him from getting whatever I get because we're together all day. I washed my hands and used hand sanitizer so much that my hands are really dry.
Yesterday we ended up taken him to the pediatrician after his mid day nap. He woke up with spit up or throw up, I'm not sure which it was, and as soon as I picked him up he spit up more. The best part was that it was orange because his vitamins are orange and he had just had them 2 hours earlier. Gross. I'm learning that as a mother you're first instinct is to protect your child. When he started spitting up I immediately turned him toward my chest so he would throw up all over me...and he did. I changed my clothes 3x yesterday.
The funniest thing about yesterday was that last night after I had fed him and given him some Mylicon for gas and Tylenol for the low grade fever he had, he sneezed. It was a sneeze with whatever was in his mouth coming out. I had him on my knees facing me, so you guessed it, it was all over me. Ken was sitting next to me and cracked up. I have to admit that I laughed as well. But, the best part was that Ethan just stared at us like, "What?" It was a great way to relieve the stress of him being sick.
We try not to worry too much when he gets sick, but it's hard not to worry that any sickness will turn into something bad. Luckily, we have a great team of doctors and they help us every step of the way. We recently received Ethan's wrap vest. We are using it 3x a day for 10 minutes at a time. It helps to get all the gunk out of his chest. It seems to be workin through this sickness since whenever he spits up a lot it has phlegm in it. I guess I'm grateful for the machine and the phlegm, as nasty as it is to have it all over yourself. I'm learning to enjoy the good and bad parts of being a mommy!
Here are some pics of Ethan with his wrap on: