Anna's RSV Adventure...so far

Day One: Tuesday evening Anna started throwing up. Throughout the night she threw up six times. Throwing up is different than spitting up. Spit up does not shoot at least two feet out of a baby's mouth like throw up does.

Day Two: By Wednesday morning Anna had a 100.8 degree fever. I made an appointment for her at the BAMC Pediatric Clinic because the Randolph Clinic did not have any available. The appointment was for 8:20 AM. I left at 7:40 AM because it was raining and I wanted to give myself extra time to get there. It normally is a 20 minute drive. It took an hour to get there because of traffic and the rain, so I was 20 minutes late for the appointment. Thankfully, they still saw her.
The doctor we saw, Dr. Gonzalez, had read Anna's chart already and knew about my Group B Strep infection at birth and Anna's unresponsiveness at birth and her one week stay in the NICU for antibiotics. She was worried that Anna may be experiencing late onset Group B Strep, which is pretty bad, and said she'd have to take an ambulance over to Wilford Hall at Lackland Air Force Base for another week of antibiotics. She had Anna's blood drawn and her urine collected and tested. Of course, her veins are so tiny and the nurse had to move the needle aroung once it was in her wrist, which Anna hated and screamed through. The nurse needed to use a catheter to collect Anna's urine. That took a while as well because getting a tube in her tiny urethra was not easy. More screaming from Anna and crying from her mama.
A half hour later, she had to collect more blood because some of it had clotted and couldn't be used for testing. Luckily, only a small amount was needed so they could prick her heel and squeeze it out.
I had asked about taking her myself and going to North Central Baptist since it was closer to my house and was told no, but I could probably take her myself to Wilford Hall. Dr. Gonzalez ended up talking to the Infectious Disease doctor at Wilford Hall and they decided since all of the blood and urine tests came back normal, and she was eating well, I could take Anna home and come back the next day to see how she was doing. I also learned that Anna had only gained an average of 8 grams a day over the last week or so and babies her age are supposed to gain an average of 30 grams a day. So, four hours later, we went home with instructions to go the ER if her temperature went above 100.4 again.
So that evening at 5:30, it was up to 100.7 and I took her the ER at North Central Baptist. We were seen right away and her temperature was down to 100.0, which is not considered a fever in a baby. They suctioned her nose, did some chest x-rays, called BAMC for the blood and urine test results and the results of the mucus from her nose showed that she had RSV. The chest x-rays were clear and her oxygen level was good, so they sent us home and said if she started having trouble breathing, to bring her back to the ER. Otherwise, have her see her doctor everyday to check her until she is better. She scheduled us to come to the weekend clinic at BAMC for Saturday.

Day 3: We had her doctor appointment still scheduled with Dr. Gonzalez at BAMC for 1PM. I called Randolph AFB to see if her regular pediatrician was available that day and he was not, so I kept the appointment at BAMC. Anna had a sad, squeaky cough by then, but no fever and not really too much mucus in her nose. She could breathe fine while she ate, but she still wasn't eating as much as usual. The doctor said she'd likely get worse and to watch her breathing.

Day 4: After a sleepless night by me because I was trying to watch Anna's every breath, I over reacted at four in the morning and took her back to the ER. She was taking a lot of pauses in her breathing and I wasn't comfortable with it. Well, she was fine and we went home.

Day 5: I slept with Anna in a reclining rocking chair in our room all night. She did well but it wasn't easy for me to actually sleep that way. Chris took a short shift to help out. Anna's nose has more mucus in it, but she can still breathe when she eats, even if she eats for only about two minutes at a time. We went to her appointment at the BAMC clinic and she has an ear infection now. Her cough is more wet and actually sounds better. She lost two ounces since three days ago, which is not good, but she was vomiting again last night. We are going in again for another check-up tomorrow. I think she's doing well compared to stories of other babies being hospitalized with RSV or having breathing treatments at home. Her oxygen saturation level was down from 100% to 96% today, but as long as it stays in the 90's, they are happy.

Hopefully there won't be very many days left of this. She's supposed to be at the worst part today and tomorrow.