Jack started coughing on Wednesday- nothing too serious, just a cough...then on Thursday he had a little bit of fever and a cough and a runny nose...then on Friday the cough got worse, so Friday night we decided to take Jack to the doctor the next morning.
Saturday Tony and I split up our duties and I took Jack to the doctor and Tony took Harper to the grocery store. The PA at the doctor's office listened to Jack's "wheeze" for only a moment before ordering an RSV test. I was dreading the results of this test. If you're not familiar with RSV, here's a link to some info: http://www.chop.edu/healthinfo/respiratory-syncytial-virus-rsv.html. The irritating thing about this is that kids have been getting Synagis shots to help prevent RSV every month since November; however, due to the new insurance (who says the kid's don't qualify for the shots) they missed their last dose of RSV season.
While we waited for the nose swab test to come back, the PA suggested we do a nebulizer breathing treatment; he explained that the medication would be in a mist form, and Jack would wear a mask for about 10 minutes while the medicine was being misted into the mask. I thought, "great- this is much better than trying to hold him still for a shot and have him cry!" Oh, I was a fool. Here is a picture of the first breathing treatment...
It was like trying to cage a wild animal. I ended up having to pin his arms behind his back and clutch his body up to my chest with one arm, with the other arm I was forcing his face into this mask that, apparently, was the worst thing he's ever encountered. He used his feet to flail about and rip the tubing from the machine, which I had to plug back in no less than 4 times; I ended up trapping both of his feet between my knees which turned his low wail into a shrill scream. I'm sure it sounded like my child was being eaten alive by a Tyrannosaurus Rex. By the end of this 10 minute ordeal, I was sweating like crazy, Jack was crying so hard that he was gasping and gulping, and the RSV test was STILL not back.
Jack and I put ourselves back together and played enough to get smiles on our faces before the doctor came in to tell us that Jack did not have RSV- best news we could hope for- but instead has bronchiolitis (an infection of the respiratory system, but not as severe as RSV). So, we went home with a nebulizer and did breathing treatments, every 4 hours for 48 hours. We figured out that if we put on some Thomas and Friends, the screaming stopped and Jack didn't mind too much. In fact, he seems to be feeling much better (despite me having to suck snot out of his nose every few hours) and I hope that he will continue to feel better (the doc said he could have this cough for up to six weeks- ugh).
In other news, we did have a couple of bright spots in the weekend: Friday night we went to Arlington and had dinner with my dad. Harper got to sit next to Dad at dinner and she really enjoyed the time with her Pop. She ate off his plate, giggled at him, and kept him on his toes trying to grab knives, straws, and anything else that was within reach.
I also put some shoes on Harper to get her dressed for her outing to the store with Tony. She looked so cute in her shoes that I had to take a picture and include it. I don't know when these kids started looking more like boys and girls than babies, but she looks so cute and "grown up" in these shoes and her cute little outfit.
We have other exciting things planned for Spring Break (a very much needed break for me), and I'll post pictures of all our adventures this week. I'll close with a picture of Abby waiting for the kids to finish eating so she can "clean up" their high chairs- funny, she seems to like them a lot more now!
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