Thursday, November 02, 2006

"it's broken mommy...need cast"

extra, extra, read all about it...some of you are asking how chase is after the long, drawn out, middle of the night ramblings of 2 or 3 nights ago. i can't remember and don't have the energy to go back and check. but, after being at the doctor's office twice in 2 days, we now know that he has bronchiloitis...otherwise known as the dreaded RSV. those of you that are moms, and probably some of you that are not but are medically aware, know exactly what that is. it is a horrible respiratory virus that attacks and causes inflammation of the bronchiloes (the tiny tubes that connect the bronchials to the lungs). this virus is especially dangerous for tiny babies and young kids with asthma. after the night that i posted (an attempt to stay awake to monitor chase's breathing), his cough and asthma got worse quickly. he was not able to go more than an hour or so without experiencing some respiratory distress (nostrils flaring, intercostal spaces between ribs sinking in with every breath, grunting with every breath). i was on the phone several times with the after-hours nurse line in an attempt to avoid the er. this was especially bad the night before last. at the doctor on monday, they said that he could go trick or treating if he was not coughing and responding to the breathing treatment...which he was halloween afternoon. so we let him wear his batman costume and go to a couple of houses and he was totally fine. however, when we got back inside, he started having trouble again. that night i was up all night with him. he was getting breathing treatments every 2 hours (the maximum amount he could get) and at 12:00am, it did not work anymore. i was getting ready to take him to the er, and then he got better for a while. then it got bad again, followed by a breathing treatment, followed by it not working and me getting ready to take him again. i finally realized that he could sleep and breath better if he sat in my lap, leaned back in the recliner in the living room. so we did this from 3:00am on. i could not sleep anyway. i did not want to take my eyes off of him. we went on like this until i could get him to the office the next morning. needless to say, i watched everything i had recorded on the dvr that night. luckily, they figured out what the virus was that was causing it and know that it is a very difficult virus to treat...that is why it was not responding to treatment. but, now he has turned the corner. he is able to go 4-6 hours between treatments now, occationally only 3, and is feeling much better. chad did all the breathing treaments last night, because let's face it...i was 1 night of no sleep shy of completely dropping my basket. i am somewhat worried about aiden getting it too because our house is one, giant germ at this point. but, if i let myself go there, you will all be contacting me at the local loony-bin. cute thing about chase though...ever since he broke his arm, he says that anything that is wrong is "broken". when his nose is runny, he comes to me and says, "nose broken mommy." if he gets a scrape on his arm..."it's broken mommy...need cast." and this week, his chest is definately "broken and needs cast."

2 comments:

Killer Hawk said...

I feel for you Mindy. It's so hard to function when the kids keep me up all night.
At least your no good husband decided to help out this time.

Anonymous said...

Hey Mindy - Zechariah is getting over his 2nd bout with RSV...we are in the 3rd week of it now. His first bout was at 6 weeks, so at least i am not AS scared this time. But I sooooo know what you are going through. I went into the Donut Connection the yesterday and she knew exactly what i wanted - b/c i have been in there to get a huge coffee so much in the past 3 weeks. As my mom says, this too shall pass...but it seems to take forever! praying for you.