First we all got the flu shortly after arriving in Seattle. Now, Dorothy's sick again. Is Washington just a festering hole of diseases?!?
Dorothy woke up this past Saturday with a hoarse, raspy voice and a cough (oh, and some nasty diaper rash, too). Her nose started running profusely on Sunday, but her temperature stayed under 100 degrees over the weekend. She was a bit cranky, and had some trouble sleeping, but it didn't worry us too much.
Monday morning, when I took her in to daycare, I discovered she wasn't alone -- it seemed that every other kid in her room was coughing and had a runny nose. Apparently one of the kids had the cough the previous week, and allegedly got bronchitis afterwards. Well, Monday night we measured Dorothy's temp at 101.7, which is starting to get high. Sunday and Monday night she was extremely difficult to get to sleep, unless she was cradled in our arms. And she would wake up if we tried putting her into the crib before she'd been out for a while.
Tuesday morning, she seemed to be better, with a temperature down at 98.6 and the rash looking better. But throughout the day, daycare reported that her temp was creeping up into the 99 range, and she wasn't very active or hungry. She eventually got bad enough that we had to take her home a bit early. Today (Tuesday) was the day that Elizabeth got information on her medical coverage in the new job (that she just started yesterday), but we didn't have insurance cards yet. But we called the pediatrician's office that we were planning on signing her up with, and they told us to bring her in. So, we headed off at 6pm to the doctor's office.
After checking out Dorothy and listening to the recent medicial history, the pediatrician decided that Dorothy probably had RSV (a common, but potentially dangerous infection in children under 3), and decided to check if Albuterol (a broncho-dilator often used by asthmatics) would help reduce the wheezing. It did, but it was a pain to find that out. The Albuterol was administered by inhalation, which meant we put the solution into a cup, which was connected at one to a ventilation mask (the kind that covers your mouth and nose), and at the other end to a little machine that aerosolized the solution. Dorothy screamed and struggled for almost the entire time, requiring both Elizabeth and I to wrestle her, and even then we weren't able to keep the mask on her face the entire time. But afterwards, the wheezing was gone, the coughing was much reduced and even sounded better. The doctor said that this will let her devote her energy to fighting the infection, instead of having to expend extra energy just trying to breathe.
If we're lucky, the Albuterol will last long enough that we only have to give it to her twice a day. If we're not lucky, then we can give it to her up to every four hours, which should be a ton of fun if I'm doing it by myself at home. Wish me luck!
To be fair, I don't think it's anything particular about Washington. I think Dorothy being sick twice in two weeks is more due to the change in time zone, the "stress" associated with moving our house and changing her schedule every other day, and being introduced to a new set of germs at a new daycare center. Hopefully she'll acclimate soon to our new house and new routine, and get and stay healthy.
Posted by Tom Nugent at February 1, 2005 10:25 PMConsidering that Seattle is home to the original skid row, and gave us grunge, maybe it is a festering sinkhole of vermin and disease?
Eh.....they have the Mariners...it can't be all that bad.
Posted by: Tom at February 2, 2005 05:00 AM