RSV

Hope you all had a great New Years!!

I have lots of posts planned for this week so fasten your seat belts!

First Up: RSV

On Wednesday of last week we were loading up the car to get ready to head to Albia to do Christmas with Joey's mom and brother. We had to stop for a weight check for Harper and I had noticed that she had started having a cough. We got her weight checked (which was awesome and this girl is gaining!!!) and I mentioned to the nurse the cold. She recommended that I do saline drops in her nose. We headed to Albia, had our Christmas celebration. Throughout the night she was having much more intense coughing spells. When she would cough she couldn't stop and when it did she would be weezing. It scared me throughout the night and I had a strong feeling something wasn't right. On Thursday morning Joey and I talked and decided to leave Albia early so we could get into an urgent care as quickly as possible.

Albia doesn't have an urgent care so we went to Indianola and got in around 11 on Thursday. We saw the doctor and he immediately ordered an x-ray, RSV test, and Influenza A and B test. When he was examining her he mentioned that he was uncomfortable with her cough and checked her oxygen levels which if they read at 95 they  need oxygen. Harper's first reading was a 95. She headed into her xray, and they completed the other tests and we waited for the results. The doctor reported back to us that the xray showed no pneumonia and he ordered a breathing treatment for her. She was such a good girl and sucked in all that good air! We asked him what he thought we should and do and he recommended that we head home to see our own pediatrician. We called our pediatrician told him the info and he asked us to get on the road immediately. We wouldn't get into town till 530 but our pediatrician was going to wait at the office for us. After examining her he diagnosed her with RSV

RSV: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infects most children sooner or later (usually before the age of 2). It often starts out with cold symptoms. In fact, for many babies and young children, the virus is no more troublesome than a cold.
For a few, though, mild cold symptoms (such as a runny nose, a minor cough, and a low fever) develop into a more pronounced cough, labored breathing, and sometimes wheezing. Your baby may also be irritable and restless and have a poor appetite.

It's important to call the doctor if you think your baby may have RSV, because the virus is the most common cause of two lung disorders in babies, bronchiolitis (which swells the small airways and fills them with mucus, blocking airflow) and pneumonia (an infection and inflammation of the lungs). Either of these conditions can be dangerous — even deadly — for babies, particularly those younger than 6 months

Here is our sweet girl getting her treatment at home:

So we have the breathing treatments at home and they seem to be working. Needless to say, it was a long couple of days. We are very grateful that our little girl didn't have to get hospitalized and that we had great care in Indianola and here in Davenport.