Both girls had been coughing for a couple of days, just as I thought they had gotten over
it. I decided to wait it out and see if it would just pass. Well, the coughing continued in both girls, so I started giving them the cough medicine that the doctor had prescribed the last time I took them to the doctor. I REALLY wanted to avoid the doctor's office this time. I watched them both closely to make sure it wasn't getting worse...but it did...in Aaryn. She started wheezing and was getting so congested that it was interfering with her sleep. She woke up in the middle of the night Tuesday morning and was burning up. I searched for my thermometer to no avail, then remembered that the last time I saw it, Cadence had it playing Doctor with her dolls.
We decided that she needed to see the pediatrician ASAP, so my husband stayed out of school and was able to get an early appointment with the doctor. To make a long story short, she was diagnosed with a viral chest infection (after being tortured by the NP, the pedi, and the x-ray techs). I'm having to give her Albuterol, via a neubulizer to keep her airway clear, twice a day, and Tylenol every 4 hours to keep her fever down. I bought another thermometer (Thanks Cadence) so I could continue to monitor her temperature.
The breathing treatments have really helped with the wheezing and breaking up all the mucus in her nose and chest. This morning when we woke up, her fever was gone, and she was a much happier and healthier Aaryn. Of course, since the infection is viral, we have to wait for her immune system to fight it off, but at least she was able to get some relief (thanks to modern medicine). We're assuming that Cadence has the same thing. She hasn't gotten any worse, but we're watching her to see if she gets any worse, and trying to keep her and her sister away from each other as much as possible.
So we wait...and pray that this is the last we see of this nasty bug. With both girls in daycare, I highly doubt that...but a mother can dream, can't she?
