For a few days baby Katea has sounded a little congested. I attribute it to this crazy Utah weather and my 3 older kids running in and out of the house, playing....and then coming in and kissing her all over. They always wash their hands and use the hand sanitizer, but still...
I actually wasn't really worried about it because nothing had changed....she was not coughing, not irritated, not up on her oxygen levels....she just had mucus in her nose and throat and I actually was able to get a lot of it out with the battery-operated nose aspirator suction thing I bought from Wal-Mart (awesome little contraption) then on Easter Sunday it got a little worse....I wasn't able to suction really anything out of her nose....because the mucus was just sitting at the back of her throat. Poor girl, it was so irritating for her...she kept trying to cough it up, but it just wasn't coming up. I decided to take her into the Riverton hospital, since they have a Primary Children's branch, just to get suctioned out. Well, turns out that you have to have a prescription from your doctor to have your child get suctioned....so what was going to be just a quick suction and leave....turned out into a 7 hour ER visit....because that's the only way they would do it. Uuugghh! Makai asked if he could come with me to take her....he's such a good brother and is always helping where he can.....but I was reluctant to take him because by the time we actually left, it was like midnight. I ended up letting him come, because he kept begging, and because he was off track and didn't have school the next day! I'm so glad he came because he totally kept me and baby company while we sat there for that LONG 7 hours.
They came in and suctioned her....then took what they got to go and get it tested to make sure she hadn't caught another virus. While they were testing her mucus, they took us back to get a chest x-ray, just to make sure her lungs were ok. The x-ray tech was really nice and made it such an awesome experience for Makai....he took him back and let him push the button to take the x-ray and then was explaining what all the different equipment was for, and answered all the millions of questions Makai had....lol...I was happy he was so kind! After the x-ray was done, they took us back to our room where we waited for what seemed like forever. Baby was hungry so I fed her....then she fell asleep. Makai was drawing pictures on the white board in the room with their dry erase markers and then the registration nurse came in with snacks and markers and paper for him. They were really nice and treated us so great!
After waiting for what seemed like forever, the ER doctor came in. She just asked me a few questions about baby Katea's history. She was completely shocked at how big she was considering she was such a micro preemie. She kept saying, over and over again "she's amazing"..."I would have never guessed she was a preemie, she looks great!" I just had the biggest smile on my face! She went on to tell me that the tests came back great and that baby does not have any virus....she's just got some mucus that she needs to learn to work out...and she said that there's obvious chronic lung disease on her chest x-ray (which we already knew) and that it looked like the top right lung was collapsing, so that I should make sure to see the pediatrician within the next couple days. She was very nervous to let us go....probably just given her history, but I was completely calm and confident and wasn't worried at all. She said "it's comforting to me that you're so calm about this" and then she asked me if I wanted her to be admitted or if I just wanted to go home. I told her unless she really needed to be admitted, I would much rather just take her home and monitor her there....I mean, she already has her own monitor, she's on oxygen already....and if all they were going to do was monitor her, I could do that at home. The doctor agreed that would be fine, and we left.....what a long night!
Baby Katea turned 6 months old, and her 6 month check-up was scheduled for 3 days after our trip to the ER, so when I called the pediatrician's office for her ER follow-up, they said I could just wait until our scheduled appointment. At that appointment, because of the collapse of the top of her right lung, they put her on a steriod pretnezone. She's been on that steriod several times since birth.... it just helps open up the lungs. I made sure to have her pediatrician write us a prescription for her to get suctioned, just in case, so we don't have to do the whole ER thing again.
The good thing is she's growing like crazy....she weighed 13lbs.6oz. at her appointment and is 24 inches long. Her growth is really amazing! She got her immunizations....5 in total, but they were able to combine them into 3 shots....so she got 3 shots that day. She's such a trooper, she only cried for like 5 seconds and then was over it. That's my girl! :)
I actually wasn't really worried about it because nothing had changed....she was not coughing, not irritated, not up on her oxygen levels....she just had mucus in her nose and throat and I actually was able to get a lot of it out with the battery-operated nose aspirator suction thing I bought from Wal-Mart (awesome little contraption) then on Easter Sunday it got a little worse....I wasn't able to suction really anything out of her nose....because the mucus was just sitting at the back of her throat. Poor girl, it was so irritating for her...she kept trying to cough it up, but it just wasn't coming up. I decided to take her into the Riverton hospital, since they have a Primary Children's branch, just to get suctioned out. Well, turns out that you have to have a prescription from your doctor to have your child get suctioned....so what was going to be just a quick suction and leave....turned out into a 7 hour ER visit....because that's the only way they would do it. Uuugghh! Makai asked if he could come with me to take her....he's such a good brother and is always helping where he can.....but I was reluctant to take him because by the time we actually left, it was like midnight. I ended up letting him come, because he kept begging, and because he was off track and didn't have school the next day! I'm so glad he came because he totally kept me and baby company while we sat there for that LONG 7 hours.
After waiting for what seemed like forever, the ER doctor came in. She just asked me a few questions about baby Katea's history. She was completely shocked at how big she was considering she was such a micro preemie. She kept saying, over and over again "she's amazing"..."I would have never guessed she was a preemie, she looks great!" I just had the biggest smile on my face! She went on to tell me that the tests came back great and that baby does not have any virus....she's just got some mucus that she needs to learn to work out...and she said that there's obvious chronic lung disease on her chest x-ray (which we already knew) and that it looked like the top right lung was collapsing, so that I should make sure to see the pediatrician within the next couple days. She was very nervous to let us go....probably just given her history, but I was completely calm and confident and wasn't worried at all. She said "it's comforting to me that you're so calm about this" and then she asked me if I wanted her to be admitted or if I just wanted to go home. I told her unless she really needed to be admitted, I would much rather just take her home and monitor her there....I mean, she already has her own monitor, she's on oxygen already....and if all they were going to do was monitor her, I could do that at home. The doctor agreed that would be fine, and we left.....what a long night!
Baby Katea turned 6 months old, and her 6 month check-up was scheduled for 3 days after our trip to the ER, so when I called the pediatrician's office for her ER follow-up, they said I could just wait until our scheduled appointment. At that appointment, because of the collapse of the top of her right lung, they put her on a steriod pretnezone. She's been on that steriod several times since birth.... it just helps open up the lungs. I made sure to have her pediatrician write us a prescription for her to get suctioned, just in case, so we don't have to do the whole ER thing again.
The good thing is she's growing like crazy....she weighed 13lbs.6oz. at her appointment and is 24 inches long. Her growth is really amazing! She got her immunizations....5 in total, but they were able to combine them into 3 shots....so she got 3 shots that day. She's such a trooper, she only cried for like 5 seconds and then was over it. That's my girl! :)
Her chubby little legs @ 6 months
A few days after that appointment she had her follow-up eye-exam. Thankfully that appointment went just as smooth as the last one, only this time we got excellent news! Her eyes are finally completely mature and her ROP is gone! So excited and thankful that she doesn't have to have her eyes dialated or popped out anymore....at least not every week! She will have a follow-up appointment in 6 months to see if she's near or far sighted! So happy for the great news!
I still have to take her back to her pediatrician in a few days for her last synagis shot of the season....then no more shots until she's 9 months old! Yay!
No comments:
Post a Comment