I wasn’t even going to bring it up. Or if I did, it was going to be an after thought. Christmas was such a wonderful time with Tom Builder’s family. However, the events of today have me wanting to share the bad news first.
It started with Faith two months ago. Some of the bigger, scarier names you find tossed around…a nasty cold, followed by the disgusting Rotavirus, and over Christmas, the lovable Hand Foot and Mouth Disease. Makes your hair stand on end, doesn’t it? Entirely exhausting for my sweetie pie…
I was praying that my breastmilk would protect Hope from the germs that seemed to be clinging for dear life on to my little wafer, The Princess of Wails, who is now just a shadow of herself. But to no avail.
Today, I sped like the dickens to the doctor’s office with little Hope in tow gasping for air. She had contracted a bad cough two days earlier that sounded like her sister’s and after a very rough night and morning she was exhibiting some real signs of stress…vomiting, belly breathing, wheezing, coughing with every single breath. Down right scary for a two and a half month old to be going through.
I adore my children’s doctor, and I could tell after he listened to her chest he was sincerely concerned, and decided to test her for RSV. I hadn’t even thought of RSV. I was still reeling from Faith’s bizarre Hand Foot and Mouth Disease with all of the hand and foot blisters. Sheesh, the house was already under quarantine! But the mention of RSV had me praying that it would come back negative. I recalled somewhere in the back of my mind that RSV was one of those things that could go dangerous quickly, and it could even be fatal with complications. It was always one of those red flags I had filed in my head during all of the mega reading and research that comes along with your first child.
Unfortunately, Hope tested postive for RSV. RSV isn’t a big deal for everyone, but it can be a bad word for little babies under six months. It can be very hard on the little ones as the sickness usually lasts two weeks, with five especially tough days. The doctor said that today was probably the beginning of the tough going part.
With one breathing treatment under her belt to get us on the road, we checked out at the desk. A nurse who had befriended Hope in the waiting room checked us out and commented as she saw the word “Bronchiolitis” on the chart, “Awww..bless her heart…at least it wasn’t RSV”. She had missed the other notation, but quickly then noticed her mistake and apologized. A couple other nurses had crowded around Hope in sympathy, and despite everything she had been through in the last 48 hours, she managed to flash a few smiles. After all, she was the very last patient to be seen in the doctor’s office for 2007. Poor girl couldn’t even get a sucker.
Thankfully, Tom Builder and I are relieved to see that her breathing treatments appear to be helping her along better. She can at least take a breath easier, without using each breath to cough.
So that’s the bad news. New Year’s Eve or not, we may have another late night in front of us. And a tough first week in 2008. Our sweet girl is wiped out and pale as a sheet. But at least she is sleeping more soundly for now.
But you count your blessings sometimes even harder in moments like these. This year, the Lord has showered us with unimaginable blessings. Hope was one of those beautiful unimaginables.
Wow. Will be keeping you all in thoughts and prayers.
I will be praying for your little Hope…My son Cohen had RSV when he was 6 weeks old, and we spent a week in the hospital and were good as new when all was said and done…
Hello,
I hate doing this because I seem like a serial blog stalker. (Which I promise I am not.;0)) I am however friends with Kateri. I check up on her on her blog every now and then. One day in doing a little research on blogging, (I wanted to start my own.) I decided to take a look at the other blogs extending off of hers. Yours was one of them. As odd as it seems I enjoy reading about your family. Maybe it is just reading about other families that have common interests that makes me come back and check in on your family. I don’t know. My main reason in writing is to comiserate with you on your run of sicky kids. We have also had those types of sick runs in our family. I just wanted to say that one of my boys got the hand foot and mouth thing. I had never heard of it until they diagnosed him with it. I do know one thing that seemed to help cease or at least seemed to help slow down all the junk they kept getting was acidophilus. The kind that is made just for little ones. You may already use it. If you don’t, I think you will find that it helps with clearing up the hf&m stuff and help her immune system. Like I said, you probably already use the stuff. I just know it seemed to be the only thing that helped.
Happy New Year & Healthy New Year,
April Hunt
P.S. my email address in TripleH_Q@hotmail.com just in case you need it.
Poor Hope and poor Faith. They have really been taking it for the team. I will keep them both in my prayers. I will try to call and check on all of you today. I hope they are already feeling better. I bet you are pretty drained yourself.
You had Bronchialitis when you were 5 months. It may have been RSV as well, but 34 years ago they weren’t testing for that. I just remember how scared I was and how helpless I felt. They didn’t give you a breathing treatment, but put you on some meds.
Happy New Year and let’s pray that 2008 brings health to the Halley Family.
Thank you all for your warm thoughts and prayers. And welcome to Leslee and Brinx. (Brinx, thank you for the tip! You are right, there is something almost therapeutic that occurs when you read other blogs that share your chapter in life.)
As of today, Hope is doing so much better. The wheezing is almost gone, and the vomiting from coughing so hard has ceased. Both of those are a big relief to me. She has been sleeping 12-15 hours at night, which is surely helping her little body recover. She still has her rough patches at certain hours, especially right after she gets up from a nap or in the morning. But overall, our little girl has come a long way. Tomorrow we go back to the doc for a follow up.