Saturday, September 22, 2007

Not Really My Idea of a Fun Saturday

Hannah's had a bit of allergies...or a cold...for the past couple of days but it hasn't been anything that we've really worried about. This morning, we woke up to Hannah screaming that she couldn't breathe. I gave her a nebulizer treatment and we hung out for a little bit but I just couldn't get it under control, so we went off to the ER.

We get there and they immediately take her into triage. A quick work up and they tell me that it will just be a minute...she's sorry but can I take Hannah out to the waiting room? Okay. We're out there just long enough to watch as a very pregnant lady walks in with her overloaded husband (pillows, blankets, suitcase, cameras, etc). She looked nervous, he looked downright terrified. At that point, we were called back.

They put one of those glowy things on Hannah's thumb and the monitor immediately lights up. The alarm goes off because she's under 90% for her oxygen level. The nurse quickly turns the sound down so that I don't freak out every time it goes off. They also gave her a purple gown, which she loved. The respiratory therapist comes in and sets her up for a treatment. The doctor comes in and assesses Hannah (her blood oxygen levels were low and she's very wheezy) and says that we'll have to see how she does with a couple of doses of albuterol and tells the respiratory therapist that she'll need another treatment in 20 minutes. He then asks when the last time she had prednisone was (November). Then she needs some.

A few minutes later, the nurse comes in with the prednisone and she tries (unsuccessfully) to tell her that it tastes like grape juice. She took it anyway.

Long story short...after a dose of prednisone and 4 breathing treatments, she was borderline. After having Hannah run around the room a couple of times to determine her lowest oxygen level, he cautiously agreed to let her go home (but if there's any wheezing stronger than when we left, we need to bring her back in to be admitted).

Hannah couldn't wait to get out of the hospital...she hardly waited to get dressed before making her way out of the room. When we got home, the boys greeted her with this card.

I thought it was sweet. Anyway, so far, so good. I'm hoping that we don't have to make that second ER run today.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh - i am so sorry! I hope that Hannah is feeling better soon! Jonathan's allergies have gotten bad and he now has a cough so we are watching him to make sure his allergy asthma doesn't show up.

Hannah is so lucky to have her 2 big brother's - the card is so nice.

Barbara said...

Keep an eye on that, Michelle. That's how Hannah's started. It wasn't bad and then it was. I hate this time of year.

Susan said...

Poor thing. I hope that she's feeling better.

Anonymous said...

Hugs from Aunt Debbie.

the Joneses said...

Tell Hannah she needs to find a new hobby, because ER runs lose their entertainment value after a while. Glad you can recognize when she needs to go in, though.

-- SJ

Anonymous said...

How's Hannah today, Barb?