First Time Wheezer on 15

...is what the doctors said in the hallway as we rushed her to the bed the nurse was pointing to.

Turns out when you take your child to emergency at 10:30 pm and she's wheezing you get to cut in line, and when she's only 18 months and it's her first time they have a bit of panic in their voice that does not calm my already rattled nerves.

That was our adventure last Thursday night.

I went home early on Wednesday with the flu. The girls seemed to have caught it, too. On Thursday afternoon I noticed that Izzy's breathing was a bit strained, but in the past the doctor said the noise is from her nose, not her chest, so I didn't think much of it.

She was irritable, I was irritable... the flu is a biatch and turns everyone into one, too!

At bedtime I noticed a big hive on her back. Her breathing unchanged I feared the worst. Allergic reaction? I gave her benadril and put her to bed, but checked on her regularly. There were no other hives, just strained and faster breathing. I noticed that she was kind of clearing her throat a lot and was coughing. She kept waking up quite a bit and finally my husband picked her up and we watched her. I tried giving her another dose of benadril, but she spat out most of it. Then she had a coughing fit that caused her to throw up. At that point I had enough. We wrapped her up and drove to the hospital.

After the fist dose of Ventilin (to open her airways) they monitored her for 2 hours. Those were the longest 2 hours of the night. I had taken my nightime meds before we decided to take her in and they were making me super drowsy. At 1:30 am another round of Ventilin was ordered as her breathing was deteriorating a bit after a pretty much full recovery from the first dose. That meant we had to stay the night.

We went to Children's hospital. You'd think they'd have beds, or cots to accomodate wee ones. Instead my hubby and I alternated lying on the hospital bed with her. Ventilin makes babies very alert. They really should have given us a hit or two! At least they brought in a cot so the other adult could 'sleep'.

They sent us home at 6:00 am with a prescription for inhalers (Ventilin and steroid one) and some hazy instructions. By the time we had the drugs and got home she was wheezing again. We tried giving her the puffer, but it only worked for 5 minutes. We tried again, with same results. I didn't know if we were using it wrong or what, so I decided to take her back.

Jeff went to work. I packed us drinks, snacks and a lunch figuring we'd be in for the long haul. The emerg was packed. There were 3 people ahead of us waiting just to see the admitting nurse. Again, wheezing cuts in line (gotta take the positives where you can). We were seen by a doctor within 5 minutes of our arrival. Her stats were good, just wheezing. Since we were back so soon, they decided to treat more aggresively. 3 doses of Ventilin followed by oral steroids followed by 6 hour observation.

Thank God for Dora and nap time! We dozed for about an hour in the afternoon. The nurse gave me fantastic instructions and I felt a lot more comfortable about how to treat her symptoms, how to administer the puffers and when to come in if her breathing gets bad again.

Finally, exhausted, we got home in time for dinner.