What a week!

A week ago Saturday Kate started coughing and had a bit of a runny nose. We kept her home on Monday and Joe took her to the dr., who said it was just a viral cold. Wednesday, my babysitter called and said that Kate was running a fever and was breathing a little fast. Another girl there had been diagnosed with RSV the week before so I asked Jeannine to watch her closely. I took her back to the dr. and they diagnosed her with broncholitis. Nothing new to our household! I was thinking, boy, we''ll really get our money's worth with that nebulizer. They said to do treatments every 4 hrs. Right before bed I did a treatment and she seemed to get worse. I called the dr. and they said to give her another one right away and if her respirations didn't slow to take her to the E.R. After her second treatment I called Beth to bring her stethoscope and she timed her respirations at over 100 a minute. I called my mom and we headed to Kosair (Joe stayed home to put Lucas to bed.) When we walked in I couldn't believe how many kids were there with seemingly the same symptoms. After assessing her, they put Kate on the high-priority list because of her need to be deep-suctioned. We were back and had seen a dr. by 10:15 p.m. and she was deep-suctioned at 11:15. Around 12:30 they decided to admit her based on her oxygen level and her respirations. Then they put her on oxygen My mom headed home and Kate and I finally got to a room at about 2:15 a.m. where they deep-suctioned her again. Her mucus was so thick that she couldn't breathe through it or get it out on her own. They would put a long, thin, rubber tube up her nose and down her throat to get all the gunk out. They did that 12-15 times during our stay. In order to come home she had to go all night without oxygen and without needing to be suctioned. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night she had to be put back on oxygen and needed suctioning. Due to her "impressive cough" that lasted 2 minutes at a time they tested her for whooping cough. Thankfully that came back negative, but they were pretty convinced for awhile! Finally she made it Sunday night and we came home Monday! Yeah! She is much better. She has a cough that just won't quit and is not eating or sleeping very well, but we're home! I'm planning to go back to work on Thursday since I'm OUT OF DAYS! YIKES! I home April and May are healthy months! Thanks for all the prayers. Being there reminded me of how many great friends I have and how much we are loved. I am so appreciative of our overall health because there are so many that aren't as fortunate who do what I did for 5 days for a much longer time! We're so blessed!