Parents pain - sick babies

For some reason my mobile posts don't always come through right. This was supposed to be posted Tuesday, April 8 at 10:45pm.

At lunch today I get a call from Rawley's daycare. Not one of his teachers and it didn't start with "Rawley's fine but" so the radar goes up. Rawley woke up from his nap early and they said he was burning up. Took his temp and it immediately went to 101. You know how that goes. A low grade fever the thermometer takes forever and a day to max out and beep that it's finished because it keeps ticking up .2 degrees at a time. Not high fevers. They're like the carnival game where you use the sledgehammer and hit the target to try and get the disk to rise and strike the bell at the top. Ding! Winner! Rawley was at 101.5. But more importantly they noticed he was having troubles breathing.  His teachers called this lady to consult. I think her name was Sarah. Sarah said she observed him and he was taking short shallow breaths with a little wheeze. He'd had his breathing treatment (daily maintenance of pulmacort) at 11 like normal. They wanted me to come get him cuz of the fever but more importantly wanted him to be checked out by a doc. I called Dr. Bergstein's office to see who could see him (spring break week) and Riddell could see him at 4p, fine.

When I got to daycare the kids were still on their cots for nap time. Rawley was lying on his tummy with his legs curled up under him. He didn't even lift his head when I walked in and said his name. That is unheard of! I could see the concern on his teacher's faces which was very sweet. I kneeled down next to him, put my face near his and pushed his hair back. First off, he was on fire. His little head was so warm. They'd put a cold wash cloth around his neck to help soothe him. Secondly, he STILL didn't reach out for me. He just laid there kinda grunting as he breathed. I scooped him up and he snuggled into my chest, finally some recognition! He was like a heating pad! I got the rundown again and he'd been breathing like that since 12:30. It was 2:30. Way too long to be working that hard to move air. They helped me gather his back pack and breathing machine and we took off. I called the dr from the parking lot to see of there was any way they could get me in earlier. I told them I had Rawley with me now and wasn't comfortable with how hard he was working to breathe. His nostrils were flairing, he was lethargic and I dint know what the grunting was about. Prior to this we've always kept our ears open for a wheeze to signify a dr appt was needed. I got transferred to a nurse and she said I could take him to the ER but if I wanted to swing by they'd get me in right away. I opted to go to the dr first. Daycare, hospital and dr are all right there at 116th and meridian.

Terri the nurse was waiting at the checking desk when I walked in. She got us right back to a room, took his temp which was now 102.6 and said Dr. Riddell would be right in. He took a listen, said there wasn't any crackle in his chest, his ears were fairly clear - a little fluid in the right but he was in respiratory distress. He wanted to do an albuterol breathing treatment to see if that would have an impact. We ended up doing two. For the most part Rawley just sat facing me on my lap with his head buried on my chest. I was so worried because he is not a calm little guy, he likes to move and talk and explore. I was also sweating to death having his hot body cuddled against mine.  After the 2nd treatment they took his o2 sats and he was at 92 but the nurse shook her head and said "I don't trust that." Rawley's heart rate was 170-180 and his respirations weren't outside normal according to the doc. Since the albuterol seemed to help he said to keep with the pulmacort and antibiotic he was on for an upper respiratory infection but to add albuterol every 3-4hrs even during the night and start a liquid steroid. If Rawley started to sound like he did when I first got there to head to an ER. Doc asked about any new pets in the house or paint or smokers and when none of those applied, said it was probably something viral that triggered his attack. I asked if Madi should be around Rawley and he didn't recommend it. We're always more contagious when a fever's present.

My Mom picked Madi up from school. Madi is having a sleep over at Nana and Papa's house tonight. It's just me and Rawley...and the boys...and Rawley's germs. Sweet!


I started writing all this because I went into Rawley's room to do a breathing treatment. On the monitor it looked like he was asleep but he wasn't. Had a little crying fit during the treatment and started grunt breathing again. He was already breathing short and shallow when we started. So his displeasure at the treatment only made his breathing worse. Right now he's cuddled on my chest (shout out to Dad for bringing over the blue rocker & blue recliner!) I'm typing and praying, praying to take the pain away. His pain and my pain. I know I will make it through this but it hurts so much right now.