Hospital

Addison had to stay in the hospital for a few days. She got really sick and I took her to the doctor on Monday. They thought she had RSV and told me what to watch for and to call them if she got worse. They also sent me home with a nebulizer and had me give her breathing treatments every 4 hours to help with her wheezing. On Tuesday I was giving her a breathing treatment and she started breathing very rapid shallow breaths. I pulled her shirt up to see if her skin was caving in around her ribs when she breathed (something they told me to look for) and it was caving in. I also noticed that the skin on her stomach looked grayish blue. I called her doctor and they had us take her into the hospital. She had also been running a fever and I was giving her Tylenol every 4 hours and it wasn't helping much to bring her fever down. They admitted her to the hospital and hooked her up to monitors so they could watch her heart rate and oxygen level. Then they did a bunch of tests on her blood and urine. They said depending on what they found she might have to have a spinal tap. Since she was running such a high fever and was so young they wanted to make sure she didn't have some type of bacterial disease. Her white blood count came back high so they went ahead and did a spinal tap. It was a very hard thing for me to watch. I know what it is like to have a hole in your spine and have spinal fluid leaking out. I find it interesting that I refused to have an epidural with Addison when she was born to avoid that very thing and now here she is having the same thing done to her less than 2 months later. They watched the culture of her spinal fluid for a few day to make sure that she didn't have any bacteria in it. It turned out to be fine. They did another blood test yesterday before we left the hospital and her white blood count was normal. We had to spend 2 nights in the hospital. Addison is doing much better now. She is glad to be home. She got so excited to see her brother and sisters. She couldn't stop smiling at them. They found out that she has a virus that is like RSV but it is a new virus that they have recently discovered and started testing for. I can't remember the name of it. They said that it usually peaks and is really bad for about 2 days then it starts getting better. We peaked in the hospital but now we have about 2 weeks before she is fully over it. I have to keep suctioning her nose and throat out which she really doesn't like. When she was in the hospital they had to do a deep suction every few hours where they stuck this tube in her nose down to her throat to suction her out. Anyway, we are so glad to be home (I hate trying to sleep in a hospital) and we are very thankful that Addison is on the mend and that she didn't have something more serious.