Sunday, February 22, 2009

Anna's Cold - or RSV

Good Sunday afternoon to you!

Anna Grace's cold got worse, unfortunately. Last night it began to look at lot like RSV, which I am familiar with; both Timothy and Emily had it as young infants, but they needed no supportive treatments or hospitalization.

I took Anna to a local urgent care this morning (we had to miss church), only to find that it had closed down. Next, I traveled to an urgent care in a nearby town, only to find their waiting room packed, with only one doctor available. The only choice left was the emergency room at our local hospital. They triaged her and found her oxygen level to be at 100%, then sent me back out to the waiting room. I waited as long as I could, but Don had to do some overtime this afternoon and we didn't have an alternative babysitter. In addition, there were very sick-looking people in the waiting room who weren't covering their coughs. I feared Anna catching the flu, so I left after a couple hours, without seeing a doctor.

Upon returning home, I called Anna's pediatrician, and he felt that because her oxygen level was at 100, and because she was only wheezing and breathing rapidly when agitated or crying, that it could wait until tomorrow morning, when he could look at her himself. He said with RSV they have their good times and bad, and as long as she was mostly comfortable, there probably wasn't any danger, as long as I watched her closely through the night. She awoke about every twenty minutes last night, so there's probably a good chance I'll have plenty of opportunity to watch over her tonight. :) Sleep is not for me, at this stage of life. I am ill with this thing myself, but I'm still loving life because to do anything else just doesn't make sense. Ya know what I mean?

Last night I caught a little bit of a news show on Fox. One of the reports included details about the chimp attack. It was so upsetting that the EMT and police officers who responded are needing counseling. As well, doctors aren't sure how to treat the victim. She has no face, and lost her sight and her hands. Good Lord! All the responders indicated that it was the worst call they'd ever been on. So, hearing things like that, I can clearly see that a little tiredness and infant wheezing isn't going to kill me.

Nothing like watching a little news to regain perspective.

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