Pneumonia!

Well, I guess it wasn't just Rowen's typical illness. She started having breathing problems about 10 am. I tried giving her the inhaler before taking Logan to school, but she didn't want to cooperate. We came home after taking Logan, and she just wanted to lay in my arms. She kept trying to go to sleep, but every 20-30 minutes, she'd start screaming about her stomach. Every time she did, I'd put her on the potty, but she only peed a couple of times. I couldn't get her to eat or even drink anything. By noon, I tried calling around to see if anyone could pick Logan up from school if I took Rowen to the ER. I couldn't get a hold of anyone, so I made her a doctor appointment for 2:45, after Logan gets out of school. Lorraine Spano called me at 1:45 to see I wanted her to pick up Logan, and she said she would keep him for me so that I could take Rowen to the doctor early and not have to have Logan with us. That was really nice, because we ended up at the doctor for 2 1/2 hours.

Rowen's oxygen level in her blood was low, she was breathing too fast, her heart rate was fast and any time she tried to breathe too deep, she started coughing. Then she threw up the three sips of apple juice I had finally gotten her to drink. So the doctor gave her a breathing treatment with an extra strong derivative of albuterol and a steroid, pulmicort. Poor little girl fell asleep 2 minutes into the breathing treatment. She was exhausted. Then I had to take her downstairs for x-rays. She started to perk up while we were waiting to get the x-ray. She didn't even get scared and was so cooperative. She thought it was funny to see a picture of her bones. The x-ray showed some build up in her lower right lung, so it looks like she has pneumonia. So now, we get to do breathing treatments every 4 hours for a week as well as antibiotics. Our kitchen looks like a pharmacy. Now at least we have a nebulizer at home. Jen Wilson said that the doctors told her that whenever Cayden has breathing problems, if she gives her a breathing treatment right away, then that will help prevent the pneumonia. Cayden's had pneumonia twice! And the stomach pain was most likely caused by the pneumonia, it was pain radiating down from her lung.

I'm so glad her inhaler didn't help yesterday and that I took her into the doctor. Poor thing, I just wish I had taken her in earlier. She started running a fever yesterday evening, which the doctor said points to Rowen having bacterial pneumonia instead of viral. That's good, because viruses don't respond to antibiotics. And it figures, that Rowen loves "drinking medicines", but her antibiotic tastes horrible. When she woke up at 12:45 last night and her fever had gotten worse, I decided to give her some Motrin. She had fallen back asleep and I had to sit her up to drink it. She did, with her eyes still closed, and as soon as she drank it, she opened her eyes and smiled. She liked that "drinking medecine". Kids are so cute and silly at the same time.

Well, I hear her waking up now, and it's time for another breathing treatment. We also have to go back to the doctor at 9:30 this morning, so it's time for me to start moving.

~Jenn