Stinky Nose

So for the last few weeks, my Lautala's nose has been so so so so stinky....I can't even describe how stinky it has been....eeewwwwww....gross.....BAD!  Everytime I pick her up to kiss her, I get a whif of her stinky nose.  She's been picking her nose a lot lately and so I thought she had scratched the inside and it had become infected or something.  Everyday, like 3 times a day, I would stick a Q-tip inside to clean it out and then I'd put neosporin on the other end of the Q-tip and roll it around in her nose, in hopes of healing whatever wound she had inside.  Mind you this has been going on for weeks now.  Just the past couple days she's started to cough and get a runny nose.  Her cough is not too bad, but bad enough for me to worry.....espeically because baby Katea might have come home this week.  I gave her ibuprofen which totally helped and every night before she slept I'd rub Vick's vapor rub on her nose and her chest, which let her have a good nights sleep.

This morning when I woke up, I called to schedule an appointment with her pediatrician....I just wanted to clear up any sickness she might have before baby comes home....and to find out why the heck her nose was SOOOOOO stinky. 

We got to her appointment and they had me take all her clothes off so they could get a weight, height and temp.  Then they had us wait in the room for her pediatrician to come in.  It was a pretty long wait because they were pretty busy, so we kept ourselves occupied by taking pictures with my phone camera....she was being so funny!  She was posing and she kept saying "mom, another one.......mom, another one" after ever picture I snapped.  She's so cute!  Haha

Once Dr. Templeman came in, he asked me what was going on.  I explained to him that her nose was so stinky, and it had been for a while.  The neosporin I was putting up there didn't seem to be working at all.  He asked me if she had anything up there.  It honestly never really crossed my mind that something would be inside her nose.....especially since she had a runny nose and it was running out of that nostril a lot.  I didn't think anything could be up there, or it would block the snot from running out.  He had me lay her across my lap as he looked into her nose with his little flashlight.  Tala was such a good girl, she cooperated and didn't cry at all.  Dr. Templeman said he thought he might have seen something so he was going to grab some tweezers and see if he could get it out.  He just stuck the end of the tweezers into her nose, pinched slightly and you would never believe what he pulled out......a 2 inch long peice of a sponge....covered in blood and boogers.  I about died.  It was so big, I can't believe that was in her little nose....and for who knows how long!  As soon as he pulled it out, Tala sat up and said "tank you doctor", she finally had some relief.  I felt so horrible and I just kept saying sorry to her.  Her pediatrician told me not to feel bad, that this actually happens a lot.  He was telling me that the really bad ones are when the kid has gone for months and months without the parents even noticing.....I can't even imagine, especially with how stinky hers was after only a couple weeks.  Ewww. 

Sad to say that because it had been in there that long, it was infected (hence the smell) so I was partially right, and the infection in that nostril spread and caused her to have a slight ear infection on that same side as well.  He told me that was the reason her nose was running and she had a little cough.  He prescribed her an antibiotic that she has to take twice a day for ten days, and then she'll be as good as new!  How crazy!

After we left the pediatrician's office, while we were on our way home, I got a call from baby Katea's NNP.  She called to let me know what they had talked about in their rounds this morning.  She told me they had been going back and forth on whether they should count the bradicardic episode she had yesterday.  Some said no, it shouldn't be counted because of the added stress factors, and others said yes we should count it because her oxygen saturations dropped down in the 20's and it took them turning up her oxygen and the flow....and about 2 minutes of stimulation for her to get out of it.  It was just too severe to not count it.  They all finally decided that yes, they were going to count it.  That meant that the 7 day count had to start all over again.  :-(  The NNP, Jolene, said that she would have felt really bad if she passed her eye exam and they were just waiting on this count for her to go home....BUT she didn't pass her eye-exam.  :-(  Usually eye-exam day is on Wednesday, but their old optimologist, Dr. Larson took a job somewhere else, and his replacement is going to come on Monday's instead....so today was the big day.  Even though her eyes are not mature yet, and are not yet at a zone 3, they have improved a lot!  What once was stage 2 ROP has improved and is now only at stage 1!  That is awesome news!  The higher the stage of ROP, the more damage done to the blood vessels in the eyes....going back to stage 1 meant her eyes were healing themselves, and that's great!  He drew a picture of how much farther she had to go to reach zone 3 developmentally....and really it's not too far.  Hopefully the next eye-exam on Monday will show mature eyes. 

So for sure she's not coming home this week....which is a bummer, but in a way I think it's one of God's tender mercies, a blessing in disguise.  It allows time for my Lautala to get rid of her cough and runny nose, and to get better so baby Katea won't be at risk for being around her.  So, as much as I was sad to hear it wouldn't be this week....I was really happy and relieved that I didn't have to have that stress of trying to keep them away from each other at home!  There's ALWAYS a positive side to every situation....I choose to focus on that!  :-)  Here's to hoping that my kids at home get better and my baby in the hospital will progress.....in time for her to come home NEXT week!