late night

Grace, with her glowing finger from the pulse-ox

Yep, we made another trip to the emergency room last night. Grace had a cough during the day and then started getting short of breath around bedtime. By 10:00pm it had gotten pretty bad, so we woke up Marion, dropped her off at a friend's house and headed to the ER.

It was a MUCH better ER experience than last time. We were taken right back, and after breathing treatments, chest x-rays and steroids, we got to go home. We made it home before 1am, which definitely beats being admitted! Her chest xray looked a little funky, so the diagnosis was the same as last time- bronchitis with underlying asthma. Coincidentally (or maybe not), she had an awful bloody nose earlier in the day. Has anyone ever heard of bloody noses and asthma going together? I'll definitely be watching out for it from now on.

Cute stories from the ER! { I'm currently reading a book about making the best of bad happenings ;) }

The nurse announced that she was going to get a "pulse-ox" for Grace. Grace got super excited, "She said she's going to get me COOL SOCKS to wear!!!" Oh well, no new socks, but she thinks the glowing finger is pretty darn cool too!

Marion often gets on Grace's nerves. After all, she's getting into EVERYTHING these days! In fact, last week she told me she wanted Marion to go to the other private school in town, not the one SHE is going to! Hmph! That was mean! Well, when we were driving home at 12:45 this morning (in a terrible thunderstorm), Grace asked about picking Marion up. I told her that Marion was staying at a friend's house and she started crying over and over, "I miss Maymay, I want Maymay!" She started again at 6:45 this morning... "Oh, I miss Maymay, let's go get her!" Who knows, it's very possible she was just jealous that Marion was having a slumber party! Maybe though, she really loves her baby sis!

oh the week...

It's been quite a week. I'll start with last Friday, one week ago. Grace went to school in the morning and to a birthday party that evening. It was a fun day and she was feeling great! Saturday morning she woke up with a little cough. I wasn't too worried- seriously, Grace gets little coughs all the time. We headed out to the movie theater to see a cheap screening of Madagascar. The cough turned into gasping and labored breathing that got worse and worse.
The swine flu is rampant in the little city we live in, and our best friends had just had it the previous week, so I was quite certain... she had swine flu! We loaded up and headed to the immediate care office since it was Saturday. I was expecting a flu diagnosis and a script for Tamiflu- in and out! We never made it to immediate care. On the way there, Grace's breathing became much worse and we decided that the emergency room was in order. Her stomach and throat were collapsing terribly with every breath. It was so so scary. We arrived at the ER and I explained that she must have the swine flu. We were outcast to the end of a long and lonely hallway to wait. Thirty minutes passed and Grace became very sleepy and unresponsive. I marched back up to the desk and explained that she needed to be seen NOW! The receptionist explained that there were many patients ahead of us, but after I made it clear that I wasn't sitting back down, she came to see what bad shape my little Grace was in. She agreed, went to the back to talk to a nurse, returned and told us we would be next.
First, they took her temp - it was 99, not really too bad. Next, the flu swab... ughh... it went so far up her little nose, we had to hold her down while they did it... poor baby. They immediately started steroids and breathing treatments and then sent her for a chest x-ray. The breathing treatments helped immediately and the steroids were right behind. Her temp dropped back down to normal and she never had a fever again. Her flu test was negative and her x-rays were clear. Her breathing was still very short and strained. And then, we waited... a long time. After the medicine had time to really be effective, the ER doc returned to reevaluate her. He thought that her breathing had not improved much and admitted her into the hospital. The diagnosis was bronchitis and an underlying restrictive airway disease (asthma!).

Night 1 at the hospital

Although her breathing wasn't great, she felt fairly decent with the steroids and breathing treatments and wasn't upset to be in the hospital. Night 1 was rough once she went to sleep... lots of moaning and waking up crying... oh, and waking up for breathing treatments all night. When the nurse checked her at 1 a.m., her oxygen level was low, so she had to have tubes put in her nose for some extra air. Oh, she hated that! I had to literally hold her down for 20 minutes until she gave up trying to rip it out. We made it through the night and the next day was better. Her best little friend, Meredith came to visit the next day which was very exciting for Grace!

Grace really felt much better on Day 2, but we couldn't go home until she made it through the night with out needing oxygen. She really kinda liked her stay though. There were hours and hours of coloring...

and even a new light bright...

Grace with her new friend, Zippy

Night two went much better than the first and she was cleared to go home on Monday. We are all so happy to be home and to have Grace feeling better. I think she would go back to the hospital tomorrow given chance... she loved the visitors, get-well gifts and even the hopital food!)... but she has been sad about missing school and dance. We are ready for next week!

Grace returned to the doctor this morning for her check up visit. Doctor M said she sounded good and we're going to continue breathing treatments as needed and try out Singulair to fight off allergies.

***Are you wondering where little May May was during all of this?? Our friends adopted her for the weekend, so she was well taken care of. Thank YOU so much!!!! :)