Asthma

Rebekah has asthma.  Something we were unaware of until she had to be hospitalized because of it.  John posted about it but I wanted to give details and add some photos. 
The children got colds from church and started with runny noses on a Tuesday which progressed to fevers and coughing.  By Thursday Rebekah was hardly eating, coughing more and starting to wheeze.  The only thing that seemed to calm her was her humming and a necklace she had gotten from McDonalds that when you push a button, music would play.  By the time I got her to bed she was having trouble breathing.  I was up at 2am and her breathing was much worse.  I woke John up and told him to leave the car seats so my sister could take us to their pediatrician in the morning. 

Friday morning I called before office hours when the doctors answer the phones instead of the receptionists and I told the Dr what was going on.  He made us an appointment to come in that morning and I got the kids ready. 
When we arrived and the doctor examined Rebekah she informed me that she thought Rebekah was having an asthma attack!  She gave her a breathing treatment and when that didn't seem to help much she told us to take her straight to the ER.  She suggested the Virtua Voorhees one as it is kid friendly. 
I told my sister, Alyssa where we had to go and we went straight from the doctors office.  I called John on the way to tell him to go straight there.  He left work and met us there.
I left Alyssa in the waiting room with Isaiah to wait for John and I went back with Rebekah.  She was examined and given another breathing treatment.  John came back with Isaiah to see Rebekah and I had to send them home because Isaiah was getting into everything.  A couple hours later she was given another breathing treatment and seen by another doctor who said that she was not progressing and she would need a chest x-ray and needed to be admitted.  I was under the impression that it would only be for the remainder of the day but I was wrong. 
 The first treatment at the ER they used a super cute elephant mask but she hated it.  She said the smoke got into her eyes so she kept them closed.  I sang to her which seemed to keep her calm. 

Then for her second treatment they decided to try this way.  She lost too much medicine though.  All that smoke coming out the end is the medicine that is suppose to be going into her lungs.

 The chest x-ray showed that she also had pneumonia.  The technician was nice enough to bring her back to see the "pictures" he took of her.  She liked that and he gave her some stickers.  She also got stickers after her breathing treatments. 

She got a hospital room all to herself and even got a nice pink pillow case that was was able to take home with her. 

 
I stayed with her until the evening.  John and I had agreed that we would swap out so I could go home for the night with Isaiah and he would stay the night with Rebekah.  They had a fold out futon we could sleep on.  John ended up sleeping in the bed with Rebekah.  She was on breathing treatments every 2 hours at that time so he didn't get much sleep. 

She was low on oxygen so they attached oxygen up to her "Love Puppy" that John had brought from home for her to sleep with.  She can't sleep without him.

 Because she sleeps so close to him at night, it was a very good way to get oxygen to her.  Alyssa lovingly took the tape off of him after we had him home.  It was hard work! 

The next day I went back to the hospital (Alyssa was nice enough to drive us to and from the hospital) for the day and John went back home with Alyssa and Isaiah.  At least I thought it was just going to be for the day.  I got there just before lunch and John showed me that there was a play room across the hall from Rebekah's room.  He said she really liked it in there. They had games and tons of toys.  They even had a Kinect.  In another room they had another video game system that the teen boys were always on.  It was called the teen room.  Rebekah never once asked to play video games because she was content with the toys.

Of course she mostly wanted to play with the play kitchen and the play dishes and food.  She had fun making me lots of meals. 

Since she was still wheezing that day they said she had to stay another night.  This time John and I decided that he should stay with Isaiah and I should just stay till Rebekah was discharged the next day.  So I was staying the night with her.  It wasn't so bad because by the time it was time for bed she was moved to breathing treatments every 3 hours and in the middle of the night they moved her to every 4 hours.  I actually woke up just before they came in for her treatment.  They let her sleep through it and they just held it there for her to breath while she slept. 

The next morning she was seen by the doctor and she was given the ok to go home.  We were given a nebulizer and I was taught how to use it and care for it.  By the time she was sent home she was still on breathing treatments every 4 hours and was told to do a follow up with her pediatrician and they would tell me when it was ok to move her up to every 5 or 6 hours. 

This is getting long so I will sum it up.  Follow up appointment wasn't too promising as she was kept on treatments every 4 hours and we needed to go back in 2 days.  Plus another nebulizer medication was added on top of what she was getting.  The next appointment went better and she was moved to every 6 hours and I was told how to progress her after that so we didn't have to go back unless necessary. 

She is now on twice a day and if she is still doing well tomorrow I can move her to once a day.  After that it will only be used as a rescue inhaler and the other nebulizer medication she is on I can take her off 2 weeks after the other one is weaned off. 

I have her sit on my lap during treatments and I sing to her to keep her calm with the mask on.  She is feeling much better as you can see from her silly faces.