A Sick Start to December

We had a little bit of a rough start to the month of December. The Saturday after Thanksgiving Brody was running a 102 fever and Sunday was still 101 so I decided to call the after hours number at the pediatricians office and they said it is safe to treat a 102 fever at home alternating Tylenol and motrin every 4-6 hours but to call back if it got higher. So we went about our day. Brody stayed home from school that Monday and Tuesday with a 99 degree temperature, went back to school Wednesday and woke up from his nap with yucky eyes. I called the doctor and went ahead and scheduled an appointment for that afternoon especially since he has been prone to ear infections. Luckily Gabe is working from home and was able to make it a family outing. All four of us walked into the doctor, did the normal weight check and temp check that you do at every appointment, and were shown to our room. We get to go in quickly since we had baby Cash with us and he was under 2 months and they don't want the newborns waiting in the waiting room. The doctor came in, asked the symptoms (I thought he may have had croup), and started his examination of Brody. He checked the ears first and again Brody had an ear infection, wait, make that a double ear infection this time. Within about 2 seconds of listening to Brody's chest he diagnosed him with pneumonia. O.M.G!!!!!! That was NOT what I was expecting. I almost cried. We then had our doctor check the baby since pneumonia is contagious and he was clear. Thank goodness! We put Brody on an antibiotic, kept him home the rest of the week and stayed inside! He was acting completely normal so either he was on the up-swing or he had a mild case of it.

Two days later, Friday, we were back at the doctor because Cash had been congested for a few days and we wanted the doctor to make sure he was still clear. Nope! Cash had RSV and was ordered a chest X-ray only because of Brody's pneumonia case. Off we go to get the X-ray, it came back showing a spot in his lungs so he was also diagnosed with pneumonia. Ugh! Back to the doctors office we go. Cash was given a shot to hurry and get some anitbiotics in him. The pediatrician told us to keep an eye on Cash's breathing and to continue to suction and saline his nose. He also wrote a prescription for Cash. And told us what to do and where to go if we needed additional treatment over the weekend. He advised us to come back in the morning (Saturday) and see the other doctor where he would determine whether or not we needed a second shot...we didn't need the shot, things were looking pretty good at that point.

Us "trying" to remedy Cash's congestion with a humidifier.

Two days later, Sunday, I made another call to our pediatrician's after hours nurse for Cash, Brody still is acting fine. She was very sweet and asked me a few questions including: do his nostrils seem to flair when he inhales? YES. Does his chest seem to sink when he breathes? YES. She recommended us to go ahead and stop in at a place called A Cute Kids Urgent Care. This places sees kids after hours and on weekends. When the nurse was recommending us take him in, she did say that it isn't an emergency situation but that since he is so little (not even 6 weeks old), she would like for us to have a professional examine him. Gabe and I discussed what to do and agreed that we would continue to watch him a little longer at home before taking him in, if at all. About three hours later, Gabe was packing the baby up to take him into ACute Kids. I decided to stay home with Brody since it was almost bedtime and he 'needs' mommy to put him down. He throws a major fit if anyone else even tries to take him back for night night. After Gabe left, I called ACute Kids to let them know that our tiny guy was coming in, in case there was a wait, maybe we could get put on the list. The nurse on the phone said that they would love to treat Cash, but she recommended going straight to Children's Hospital, the Plano location. I immediately called Gabe and no answer. Called again, no answer. Again and again. I probably called 8 or 9 times before he answered. He took the baby to Children's and was seen right away. They looked at his vitals in a little triage room, was admitted to a room in the ER and did a more in-depth check of his vitals. They performed a deep suction to get out as much of the secretions as possible which Gabe said helped a ton. Baby Cash was also hooked up to a machine that checked his oxygen level. At this point they were not sure if he was going to have to stay overnight but it was getting close to the time where the baby was going to need to eat, so I had to go up to the hospital. Brody is still awake so I asked my sweet next door neighbor to come over until we could figure out other arrangements for Brody. When I got to the hospital at about 9:00 and the doctor had already seen Cash and taken another chest X-ray. I was able to feed Cash and the nurse had us give him a breathing treatment. A short time after that, we were given the final word that they wanted to keep him overnight (again because of his tiny-ness) and monitor his oxygen levels. We were admitted to a different room, out of the ER. Once we got settled my mom came up and stayed with me and Cash in the room. The doctor came in about 2am to talk to us about the spot in his lungs. We were originally told the spot was pneumonia, but this doctor said she wasn't so sure. She believe the spot was a build up of mucus. We were able to look at the X-ray on the computer and she explained EVERYTHING to us and answered all of our questions, which was so wonderful. After our visit with the hospital doc, Gabe left to go home and be with Brody. He wanted one of us there when Brody woke up in the morning so his morning routine wouldn't be interrupted. Gabe took Brody to school Monday morning and then headed up to the hospital. Nothing exciting happened overnight, or at all on Monday. Our pediatrician called me early Monday morning once he received the notice that we admitted Cash to the hospital. That meant a lot to me. The nurses and doctors at Children's in Plano couldn't have been nicer. My mom left late morning and we (Gabe, Cash, and I) hung out until we got to talk to the hospital doctor at 5:00 pm when she said it was ok for us to head on home. Cash's oxygen was just about perfect the whole time we were there which was awesome. We had an appointment scheduled with our pediatrician on Tuesday already for a follow up to the Friday/Saturday visits, so we went ahead and went on in to discuss the hospital stay. We were advised that RSV usually sticks around for a while, especially the cough. Gabe was continually using the saline and suction, which helped a ton. By the end of the week, it seemed like Cash's symptoms had just about disappeared. Praise the Lord!

This is so pitiful! My heart aches just looking at these pictures.

The "diaper" on his hand is where they put his baby IV in case they needed to give him any medication. Luckily, it was never used. It was an ordeal getting it in though. They put a diaper over it so he wouldn't be able to mess with it.

Daddy and Peanut

Mid-December, Gabe and I suffered from the stomach bug, and we think Brody did too. My first case, Brody and Gabe's cases seemed to be mild, then I got it again 10 days later and it was no bueno!!!

We are glad to all be healthy now. Cash and Brody are slightly congested at the moment, but we are keeping a very close eye on both of them. Thinking it is just that time of year. Hopefully that is all the illnesses we will encounter for a while.