Our First ER Trip

I was sure that our first trip to the ER would be with one of the boys because they had broken a bone or split open their head by messing around or falling or doing something stupid.  But, alas, our first ER trip was with little Miss Talia.  Here's the story.

Saturday morning Talia slept in until 10:20.  This is not normal.  When she finally woke up she was warm.  I didn't take her temperature but I know she was running a low fever.  Probably 99 or 100.  I gave her some ibuprofen and she ate breakfast.  She seemed fine.  Played and was happy.  We had friends over for lunch and games in the afternoon.  She started getting whiny, but I attributed that to the fact that she hadn't had a nap.

We put her to bed a little early that night, but she seemed fine.  No runny nose, no coughing, no fever.  Ian and I curled up to watch a movie.  We heard someone crying and thought it might be Beckett, but the monitor was quiet.  It sounded weird.  It was Talia and she was crying and coughing.  Poor thing was warm and had raspy breathing.  I got her calmed down, gave her a drink of water and laid her back in bed.

Half an hour later she was awake again.  We snuggled on the floor of the bathroom while the shower ran to help with her cough, but she still was breathing with difficulty.  She was also definitely running a fever.  I was mostly concerned about her breathing.  I called the on call pediatrician.  She listened to her symptoms then heard her cough (since Tal was lying next to me on the bed).  The doctor recommended taking her to the ER since her cough sounded like croup and it would only get worse unless it was treated.

I took her to IMC, which is kind of far away, but I know they take our insurance.  It was a pretty quiet night in the ER.  We didn't wait long.  Talia was clingy and fussy whenever they wanted to do anything to her, like take her temperature or blood pressure.  She was running a fever of 102.7 and her heart rate was fast.  They got us checked into a room and the doctor ordered a dose of ibuprofen for the fever, a dose of steroids for the inflammation in her lungs, and a chest x-ray to make sure she didn't have pneumonia.  Then we hung out in bed while they monitored Tal's heart rate for a little while.  The chest x-ray was clear and her heart rate was holding steady at a slightly elevated but normal rate.

They diagnosed her with viral bronchiolitis (inflammation of the upper airways) and we left with a prescription for another dose of steroids and advice to take her out into the cold air if her cough got bad.  I am glad that she doesn't have pneumonia.  I am sad that we are going to have to pay who knows how much for the ER visit/chest x-ray.

We got home around 2:30am and went to bed.  It was a long, tired Sunday.  Talia seemed to feel ok during the day.  I was fully expecting her to be up coughing last night since this condition tends to worsen at night, but she slept all night long.  Hooray!  I really needed the rest.  Now we are just waiting it out and trying to keep her away from Beckett.