It actually started with Eli this time. One day he started coughing, and next thing we knew we could hear him wheezing and crackling every time he breathed. Off to the doctor he went, and came back with antibiotics (unnecessary, I think, because it seems viral), a diagnosis of pneumonia, and instructions to do breathing treatments every four hours during the day and in the night as needed. It took him a good two weeks to get back to sounding ok without the use of the stethoscope, and longer than that to pass a stethoscope inspection.
By that time, Joel was hacking. For him, we’re unofficially calling it bronchitis. Since it does seem to be viral rather than bacterial he didn’t even bother going to the doctor. Nor did I when I caught it. So we hacked together, a loving, wheezing couple caring for our crackly, wheezy baby.
Next came Desta. Once again it started with the cough. I didn’t bother taking her to the doctor, but when I listened to her lungs I could hear them crackle. So I home-diangnosed pneumonia again. None of us had fevers, and we were all doing ok energy-wise (other than the normal lack-of-sleep issues), so I didn’t see any point in dragging anyone in to a doctor’s office again.
Then Charis started. Oddly enough, the child who’s been in the hospital twice for RSV (once at age 8 weeks and once when she was a year old) hasn’t been hit too hard… yet. So far she’s mostly had trouble with nighttime coughing. But it’s that same icky cough.
Then it hit Branwen. I wish I could insert the forboding music here. Of all of my kids, Branwen is the one with the weakest lungs. She’s had pneumonia multiple times in her short life (she’s the five year old), and just last year was hospitalized for it for four days. I was concerned about the others – especially Eli because his sounded so bad – but with her I really get worried. So far she hasn’t seemed too much worse than the others. The one thing that bothers me is that she does seem to lose energy faster than normal, and that could be a sign that she’s not getting enough oxygen. She’s having trouble sleeping, too, so maybe that’s all it is. In any case, I think I’m going to take her in to the doctor tomorrow just to make sure her oxygen levels are ok.
I thought she’d be the only one I’d take seeing as Eli finally seems to have kicked his, Alexis hasn’t seemed to catch it yet, Charis really isn’t too bad off, and Desta has just had occasional coughing. But I kept three of them – Desta, Charis, and Branwen – home from church today just to be safe and not spread anything. I’m glad I did. As I was downstairs getting myself some coffee and the girls were getting dressed, Branwen and Charis ran out into the hallway yelling, “Desta threw up!!” I ran upstairs to find a relatively small amount of vomit on the bedroom floor, and it looked pretty mucousy. We’ve fought pneumonia enough times for me to know that it can make them throw up as well as cough, so I decided to listen to her lungs again even though she’s been acting ok and hasn’t been coughing a whole lot. Guess what! She’s wheezing and crackling! *sigh* She obviously handles this sort of infection better than some of the others because you’d never guess she was sick from the way she plays and acts. I will say that she’s occasionally said her tummy didn’t feel good, which was probably from the mucous going down into her stomach. Anyway, I think I’ll probably take her in tomorrow, too, just to make sure we’re doing all the right things for her.
Feel free to pray for us. This is a nasty virus. Pray that Branwen will start getting better and not worse. Pray that Desta and the rest of us will recover quickly. Pray that Alexis doesn’t catch it.
It’ll be nice when this is over.