Illness Lockdown

The past week and a half has been a pretty ill week for the Daems clan. After hearing about all of our friends having week long bouts of illnesses this winter, it was our turn. It started two weekends ago, when Nicholas started to have a runny nose and cough. By Tuesday he looked and sounded awful, so I decided to take him to the pediatrician. After giving him the once over, she diagnosed him with pneumonia. He was immediately put on antibiotics, and within a day was already looking better. By that Friday, unfortunately, Lexi started to run a fever and had a runny nose/cough. Knowing she'd been exposed to Nicholas all week, I took her to the pediatrician before they closed that Friday and they said she sounded okay but that she probably just had a cold. They did warn me, however, to watch for any signs that she may be getting worse (i.e. increased fever, lethargy, etc). Lexi was touch and go all weekend, but by Sunday afternoon she had a fever of 103 degrees and was so cranky. She just didn't seem like herself. I didn't feel comfortable waiting until the following morning to go to the doctor, so I drove her to the emergency room to get checked out.

Poor Lexi...she was put through the ringer at the ER. The doctor on call thought she looked jaundiced, so they wanted to do a blood test. The ended up putting an IV in her arm, in case they needed to administer medication for the jaundice. They also had to swab her for RSV, which entailed sticking a thin swab up her nose and down her throat. Both the IV and the swab were not pleasant for me to witness as a mother, and I'm sure even less pleasant for Lexi to experience. Lexi also received a chest x-ray. The final diagnosis was RSV, a respiratory condition that most babies get. It is treated just like a cold...rest and fluids. Oddly, the ER doc said that Lexi's chest x-ray showed that she had an enlarged heart and that we should take her to a pediatric cardiologist to get it assessed. As you can imagine, I was a little shocked to hear this information and immediately started thinking about things a mother shouldn't think about.

The following day was Nicholas' 3 year physical anyway, so we took Lexi in as well. Our pediatrician checked Lexi out and was pretty certain that she was going to develop pneumonia from the RSV, just as Nicholas had, so she prescribed Lexi antibiotics. We also discussed the heart issue. After viewing the x-ray, as well as conferring with the radiologist at the hospital, both doctors agreed that Lexi's heart did not look abnormally large. So, that was a relief. Oh, and while we were there, Nicholas also was diagnosed with another ear infection...so more antibiotics for him!

Both kids are on the mend. Nicholas is all better and Lexi is doing much better. Her fever is completely gone and her nose is running less. She's sleeping better and is starting to be more like her normal, easy going self.

Here's hoping we've served our time in illness lockdown for the winter!

A shot I took of Lexi on my phone...IV and all :(