An Ugly Cold

Lily is getting over a pretty nasty cold that ended up giving her a spot of pneumonia.  This was the sickest I've ever seen her.  She was just so pitiful.  I took her to the doctor on Wednesday, but he sent me home without any medicine and said just keep an eye on her and come back if she gets a fever, her cough gets worse, or her vomiting gets worse.  The vomiting got worse, so I took her back on Friday.

On Friday, the doctor heard wheezing and recognized that her nose was so stopped up that it was possibly causing the vomiting, so he prescribed an antibiotic and a steroid.  He also was going to be on call at the pediatric emergency room on Saturday, so he suggested we take her back the next day and let him listen to her again.

Then it got crazy because Lily just couldn't keep much of her fluids in.  This was a problem because the medicine was to be taken with food.  And she was sleeping most of the time, so the breathing treatment wasn't working much because she wouldn't wake up and kept having apnea spells because she was sleeping.  My concern was if she's not getting the oxygen in, how is the medicine getting in?  Then she did this weird thing.  I was feeding her and she began to vomit, but some of the formula was coming back up into the syringe, so I decided to let it flow back into her stomach.  When that started going back in, it was as if a water hose was in her mouth and the formula was running (not projectile this time) out of her mouth and down her chin.  I've never seen that happen before, so it concerned me.

Dave took her to see the doctor on Saturday, and he decided to give her a shot of steroid and antibiotic.  They did an x-ray and found a spot of pneumonia, but they let her come home.  My concern was that she might have even been dehydrated, but she was producing wet diapers, so the doctor wasn't concerned with that.

And with all of this going on, I wasn't getting too much rest.  Friday night, she whined pretty much all night long and vomited three times.  Plus, Soleil woke up twice wanting to eat.  During the day, Lily was getting plenty of rest, but not me.

It wasn't until Sunday afternoon that she finally woke up and was her perky little self.  She's been that way ever since.  Still coughing a little, but no runny nose, no stuffy nose, and so far, no vomiting.  Last night I woke up at 2:30 with her and gave her a little more formula because we've been gradually upping her feeds not knowing whether her little stomach has shrunk or not.  Luckily, Soleil slept all night.

It's been an exhausting and frustrating couple of days and a little scary, too, but Lily's feeling a whole lot better, and it looks as if we've made it over another sick hurdle.  Lily stayed in for Halloween, but we dressed her up anyway.  Here are a few pictures from the evening.