2 weeks from $%^%$

On Friday September 25, Rachel woke up at 3 am not able to breathe right. She was using all her chest and rib muscles to breathe and she wasn't talking hardly at all. I took her to the doctor and they did 3 breathing treatments on her but they couldn't get her breathing stabilized. So, onwards to Children's hospital we went.

We were there for about 7 hours. They did 4 more breathing treatments and gave her a steroid. It was about the time that the steroid kicked in and after the 7th one that she began to perk up a bit. She still was breathing hard but this was the first indication we had, all day, that we would be able to take her home. In fact, I was prepared to stay the night and when Steve left to pick up Jason, he was getting the things I needed for the night.

She seemed to do ok after we got home but we had to give her breathing treatments around the clock, every 4 hours - which included waking her up in the middle of the night. She HATED them in the hospital and cried every time just as she did at home. The doctor at Children's had said that although her chest xray was clear, she heard a distinct crackling sound in her lungs which led her to believe she had a touch of pneumonia and reactive airway disease. She was put on antibiotics as well. By Saturday, she seemed to be doing better with her breathing and she got better quickly from there.

The following Sunday was Jason's consecration rehearsal and he woke up a bit green. He had a fever in the middle of the night but not in the morning and he said he felt ok. We took him down to Plum Street Temple for consecration rehearsal and he was very quiet in the car. By the time we got there I could tell he wasn't feeling good. He did not want to participate in the rehearsal. We did stay, but we just watched so at least he would know what to expect on his consecration night

By 2pmish, Jason spiked a fever of 103. We gave him motrin and 40 minutes later it was 103.5. Off to Urgent Care we went. He was diagnosed with a virus and a double ear infection. He was tested for the flu type A and B and tested negative which means that since Type A was negative, he did not likely have H1N1. (whew!) That night he had a very clear croup sounding cough (you can't miss it!) so it's likely he had that as well. We actually gave him some of Rachel's breathing treatment and did a few sessions in the bathroom with the shower on HOT to steam up the room. Steve stayed home with on Monday where he was doing much better.

Tuesday at 5pmish the Director of Childtime called and said that she knew we were our way to get Rachel but she wanted to let us know that Rachel had a fever of 103. When we got her home she had a fever of 103.3. Luckily, our pediatrician office is open until 9pm and we got her an appt at 8:30. We were very worried about her because of the incident with her breathing the week before. Her lungs sounded fine and her ears looked good so she was diagnosed with a virus and sent on her way. I stayed home with her on Wednesday and Thursday.

These poor kids and poor us! I haven't felt great myself all this time and was actually out sick one day last week so we are ready for all this to END! This has been a terrible fall for all of us so far... I pray for a healthier rest-of-fall and winter!