This silly girl will occasionally have breathing issues. It started when she was 5 months old and hospitalized for three days with pneumonia/dehydration. Since then we've run the gamut of nebulizer treatments and doctor visits with the occasional trip to the ER. This weekend we rushed down off the mountain after we ran out of medicine and she was not breathing any easier. After getting her blood oxygen level checked we were advised to go home, give her a breathing treatment and take her to the ER if she didn't improve. A few hours later we found ourselves in the ER. Girlie has pneumonia. She also loves blueberries.
This silly momma will occasionally have issues that involve awareness/backbone. After putting The Girl on oxygen, giving her the appropriate medications and waiting for what I am assuming to be an appropriate amount of time, the doctor came in and said he was taker her off the oxygen for 10 minutes to see what her blood oxygen level was holding at. After about 6 minutes her saturation level was 92 or 93%. He put her back on the oxygen, stating that her level was dropping too fast, and said he was admitting her to the hospital. Now here's where the awareness/backbone part would be helpful. Good questions to ask: At what point does her blood oxygen saturation level become unacceptable? Is admitting her to the hospital really necessary? Could we wait a bit longer and check it again before proceeding? All excellent questions I thought of after being with her in the hospital overnight and into the afternoon [while we waited for our pediatrician to make his way over and discharge her]. On the children's floor her blood/oxygen saturation level hovered around 89-90%. They monitored her levels but never once put her on oxygen - when I asked if she needed it [I believe my exact words were - in reference to the tiny oxygen mask the ambulance transport people left, "So, does she not need this?"] they said her levels were fine. And here I though the only reason she was admitted was because she had to be on oxygen. Silly me.
ps. I like blueberries too.
pps. In case you were wondering, the girl is fine. Wild and crazy, as per usual.
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Soooooo very glad she's doing okay. I read the breathing part before the blueberry part and had to do a double take. That would be some crazy circulation. We have a few little ones that have mild breathing problems. Both our fourth and sixth get crazy hard breathing when teething or when sick. We've done breathing treatments, but no ER visits yet. Sorry the communication was not there - how frustrating. At least you'll know for next time - if there is one. I would have done the same thing and wondered why.
ReplyDeleteMy Mischievite had pneumonia at 18 months. I took him to the ER because he was breathing really heavy and I was panicky. (2AM visit)... they sent us home with a diagnosis of 'heavy breathing.'
ReplyDeleteNext day I go to the Ped and he immediately calls for an x-ray. Sure enough... there it was, that tell-tale white stuff around the bottoms of his little lungs.
He's had breathing problems ever since. It's better since we've been here. We'll see how winter goes.
If you need a babysitter you can always call me you know. :)