RSV rsv RSV rsv RSV

Kara has decided that Mommy's hand tastes delicious, her little hands have a death grip around my wrist and she's happily munching away. Me? I'd rather be in bed since we were up most of the night but that is what I get for having twins! Thankfully she hasn't caught this nasty RSV bug or at least if she did it hasn't been very bad. Her poor sister Kiley is having a rougher time with it.

Last night I really debated if I should take her in. "Were those retractions I just saw?", "Does she seem to be breathing really fast?", "Oh my gosh she looks awful." I posted a video up on Facebook because sometimes it's just nice to get an outsider's opinion, someone who isn't consumed with panicked mommy syndrome (I made that up...) After a few people agreed with me I decided I was going to take her in and get her checked out. I wanted to make sure she was ok.

Of course she cried the entire way there. And her cry sounds awful so it freaked me out a little....The ER staff was wonderful. They treated me so well and never once made me feel stupid for bringing her in. When they we were getting her first set of vitals done Kiley looked up at the guy and just smiiiiiiled. My first thought was "OH great... now they'll think I was crazy, you look fine!" Her O2 sat was still good and so that at least was reasurring.

They literally got me back into a room and Kiley was evaluated in less than 5 minuets. The Dr was in before the nurse could even finish evaluating her! They hooked her up to some monitors, took her temp (she was running a fever) and then they checked her thoroughly. He did see the retractions and heard some wheezing. After a bit they decided she was not in respiratory distress but just feeling pretty lousy. They gave her more Tylenol/Motrine and had the respiratory therapist come down and give her a neb treatment. They monitored us for another hour or so. He decided that he was comfortable enough to send me home but that RSV can be very strange. One minuet they are doing awful, the next they look ok... then they can get really bad really fast. He said it is an hour to hour thing. If she started getting worse at all he told me to bring her right back in. Days 3-5 (where they think she is) are the worst, it seems to peak around then. If we can get past Wednesday she will be through the worst of it. I guess it also hangs out in the lungs for a loooong time, so she can have a cough, runny nose etc for 2 more weeks...fuuun....

So now I need to get the neb treatments sometime today (pharmacies just aren't open at 1am)... The mask is pretty funny, I'll get a picture of it later. The things they do for kids now a days lol. The nebs don't TREAT the RSV, they just make her a little more comfortable because it is a little easier to breathe.

So... here's a laughable point of my night last night: I was driving home in the rain, in the dark, having just spent 3 hours in the ER with a Kiley all hooked up to monitors. I start hearing this sound that to me is stridor. I listen again. Oh gosh that is stridor. I freaked out because I thought she was going into respiratory distress! I pulled off the interstate, flipped on the dome light, crawled into the backseat, started unzipping her... I mean all manner of things are going through my head. Should I call 911? Where am I? Will they be able to find us? Should I just head back to the hospital? I need to call Tom....then I heard it... it was the windshield wiper on the back window. Seriously. I was shaking I was so scared and it turned out to be the windshield wiper. It's funny now... and I laughed at myself a little later... .but it had been a long night and there is nothing worse than watching your baby struggle to breathe. So I don't blame myself for panicking like that... but wow what a night.

I feel like there is so much more I need to write. We also did Abby's therapy last night before all of this happened. The play therapist is thrilled with the progress Abs is making. We have a few things still to work on but we are trying hard! It's not a quick fix, a lot of work is involved. Well speaking of Abby she is upset that I haven't yet gotten her out of her crib. Kara is upset because she doesn't want to be in the bouncy... and so my day begins....