So after another yicky night of Marek sounding completely awful and worrying his mother half to death, I continued to complain to Jonathan and my mom and my friend, Tamara, about how uneasy I felt with Marek's medical treatment the last couple of times. I am trying to prevent my newborn from getting extremely sick, not waiting until he actually gets there! On this morning, I was frantically trying to rush my morning shower because I could see Marek waking up and screaming on the monitor. By the time I got my bod dried off, he was completely hysterical, so I ran in to get him. And I started panicking a little. He was having so much trouble breathing. He was working so hard, breathing so fast, wheezing, retracting, grunting, you name it - he was doing it just to try to breathe. Remember, I have been an ER nurse. Yes, I know it is my child. But I know. I completely know it sounds bad. I call the pediatrician immediately and tell them he's having trouble breathing. They ask if I can come in at 1:45 (it's 10am). "Um, no, he's going to tire out before then. He can't keep up this kind of breathing that long." So they get the nurse on the phone who, after talking with me (and overhearing him on my shoulder), says to just come right over and we'll get worked in. And I asked for our favorite doctor. So I urgently tell Ellison to get dressed while I throw on clothes, and off we go. When they take us back, they all are commenting about how bad he sounds. Ya think?! The doctor comes in, and looks concerned. She immediately orders a nebulizer treatment and comments about how hard he's working to breathe, and oh, he has an ear infection (that he didn't have yesterday?! Urgh.). After the neb, she listens to his lungs again and says he needs another one. Amazingly, Marek was maintaining his oxygen saturation very well. After listening to him after the second treatment, she says "I'm worried about him. He sounds a little better, but he's still working very hard." But since he is maintaining his SaO2, she'll send us home with the neb treatments to be done every 4 hrs. And can I give him a back-to-back treatment at home? No - if he continues like this, he'll have to go in the hospital. She also wants him to go for a chest Xray to make sure he doesn't have pneumonia since he's so little, and wants us to come back again tomorrow so they can check him again. After finding a quick sitter for Ellison (God bless you, Nani Joan!), and running all of the medical errands with Marek, we hear the Xray shows no pneumonia, just lots of mucus in his chest. At least that's good news. Off we go back home to start doctoring our poor little babe while Mom & Dad walk on eggshells and sleep with one eye open...
Doesn't he look so pathetic. :-(
After screaming his lights out, he always falls asleep during the neb.
Doesn't he look so pathetic. :-(
After screaming his lights out, he always falls asleep during the neb.
[March 1, 2011]
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