Yesterday, I was going back on my Instagram and it occurred to me what the heck did I do with my time before I had a child? One thing is for sure, I had a lot more of "Me" time. Although, being a mother is so rewarding, it can be so draining. And yes, here's another cliche, I LOVE IT. The love I have for Raleigh goes beyond any love I've had before. Like I said before though, it is hard.
Raleigh had a horrible case of Bronchiolitis two weeks ago. I put her to bed on a Friday night just like any other around 9pm. At 10:00 she began screaming and crying. I had no idea what was going on because that is so unlike her. I brought her to bed with me and she would fall asleep and then wake up screaming again. Luke was working a 12 hour shift that day so he wasn't getting off until 2am. I tried giving her medicine around midnight, giving her milk, teething medicine, nothing was helping! Not even being held by me. I felt so helpless, I wished I could have taken away all her pain. Once Luke got home around 2:30 he was so kind and sweet to her (He really is the best daddy, she adores him) All of a sudden BLECH! She started vomiting all over the bed (and Luke) So we sprung into action taking her into the bathroom and the bathtub. Luke sat in the tub with her while I tried to clean up the mess. After we thought she had finally got it all out we took her downstairs to watch Elmo. As she was laying on the carpet in just a diaper we noticed her breathing was not right. She had to work soooo hard to breathe in and out her stomach would descend out and in much larger than normal.
While this was happening we could see her ribs in her back and chest and indentations in her collar bone area as well as her diaphragm. Her nostrils were flared trying to get air in. She fell asleep on the floor and it still continued. I had no idea why vomiting would cause such a reaction. This was very scary for us as parents. Luckily, I remembered about the nurses line that comes with our insurance so I called them to see if we should take her in to be seen. As I talked with the nurse they had me rate her breathing on a scale with symptoms associated with it. When she was reading off the severe category symptoms it matched up perfectly with what was happening. Up until this point I wasn't scared just feeling so bad. I could tell from the tone the nurse used this was a very serious situation.We grabbed everything and drove to the Children's Hospital North Campus. When we arrived it was around 4:30am and Raleigh on the way had puked all over herself (and the new clothes I had just put on her.) We were seen immediately after the prescreening. She had a fever, her oxygen levels were in the high 70's (normally it should be in the mid to high 90's) All of a sudden doctors and nurses came in the room and while they were explaining what they had to do they started doing it because her oxygen was dropping. They had to suction out her lungs which had filled with mucus by shoving two tubes up her nose and down her trachea.
It was so painful as a mother to see this happen to your child and feel so helpless. Raleigh was in hysterics and was fighting so hard to get them away from her. After the traumatizing suctioning they gave her albuterol to try and help open up her airways as well as putting her on oxygen.
After an hour nothing changed. The doctor came in and said that it was best for her to be taken to the children's hospital main campus but the best way for her to get there would be to be taken in an ambulance. Around 6am Raleigh and I left in the ambulance to the hosptial. Luke waited for my mom to come pick him up because only one was allowed to ride with Raleigh and we both had not slept at all that night.
Once arriving at the hospital Raleigh was suctioned again, this time was even worse for me. I had to help the respiratory therapist hold her down I felt like I was helping someone hurt my child! I kept trying to keep a good face because I didn't want her to see me cry. Every time she would sneeze she would get horrible bloody noses from the suctioning!They put her on high flow oxygen and waited for her oxygen levels to go up. They also had to give her an IV with fluids because she started getting very dehydrated. Watching her get and iv and them missing the vain was horrible!
Once they were finally stable we were admitted and sent to the regular part of the hospital.
We stayed in the hospital from Saturday-Tuesday. By Tuesday she was back to her normal (crazy) self! Nurses and doctors were surprised with how much she had improved. I was so grateful we took her to children's hospital instead of a regular one. The nurses and doctors knew great ways to help her, there were toys you could check out, her favorite movies (Cars, Frozen, Sesame Street), and the staff were so amazing and great with her. She even warmed up to some of the nurses! I wished I remembered their names to send them a thank you. There was one nurse in particular who knew exactly what was causing Raleigh distress. It was people wearing masks! She always showed her face to Raleigh first before putting it on.
Once we were discharged Raleigh seemed totally fine! She made a great recovery and didn't require any albuterol or oxygen. She was fine anyways until last Sunday where the same symptoms began again with retractions and difficulty breathing. It was out of the blue and totally de-ja-vu. Around 8pm Sunday we started noticing her having trouble again. We tried giving her a shower/bath to see if the humidity would help but it only got worse. We just drove straight to the main campus this time after calling her pediatrician. It was not as severe as before, probably because we caught it early on. They had to suction her yet again, she fought it the entire time. This time after a chest xray and other things it was found she either had a double lung infection or a milder case of bronchiolitis. After pulling another all-nighter we were allowed to go home.
Currently, she now has a prescription for albuterol and an inhaler that she has to take. While it didn't work well for her when she had bronchiolitis the first time it is helping her a ton with her lung infection.She is doing much better back to her normal self and we are praying we are done with the hospital for a good long while. Thank you for all your prayers, well wishes and thoughts. We are so blessed to have our daughter be so much better now than before.
The most ironic thing? We finally got her final bill after fighting with insurance companies and such from when she was born. The blessing? It was only $511.00 thanks to Colorado Indigent Care Program where before we were supposed to pay $17,000! Hoping that it'll be on our side this time too with all of these hospital visits. If you qualify for it DO IT! You never know when you will be in a situation like this. Most hospitals accept it and it's free! https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/hcpf/colorado-indigent-care-program
