RSV

Kate spent two days in the hospital this week while she was treated for RSV. 

Over Christmas break my family picked up the most yucky, sticky, long-lasting cold.  Of course, the inevitable was destined to happen with 6 kids in our home. Kate caught the cold and had it for about a week.  The common cold is more than just that for a preemie.  It often goes hand in hand with RSV.  She was due for her Synergist shot (RSV prevention) on January 6th- Monday.  I took her and Kennadi into the clinic to see Dr. Grandpa and get her the shot.  Kennadi had the awful cold also and she ended up having a double ear infection. Kate was actually doing pretty good.  She just showed minor cold symptoms.  I was so proud of her that she was fighting it off.  BUT-It seemed as though the minute we walked back in the door of our house she started to worsen with a cough.  Within 24 hrs., she headed downhill quickly.  She was miserable, with non-stop crying and coughing.  She was having a hard time breathing.  She was moaning with every breathe.   Tuesday afternoon I took her to the clinic again and we did a bunch of labs, nose swabs, and a chest x-rays. Everything came back saying it was a common cold- no Pneumonia, RSV, Strep, or Influenza.  Such a relief- I was glad we were still just dealing with a cold. My dad had us do one more test before we left- it was a nasal suction in which they sent the fluid from it to Utah Valley Regional to test a second time for RSV.  That night Kate had a rough time.  She stopped drinking her bottles and her oxygen saturation was dropping.  I called my dad early Wednesday morning to tell him and he said that Utah Valley had just barely called and said her test was positive for RSV.  Josh quickly came home from work, my mom was able to change her work schedule and made it to my house in a matter of minutes to watch my kids, and my dad came over to assess Kate and take us to the hospital to be admitted.  Thank goodness for MOMS and DADS!!!  I am so grateful to live so close to my parents and for all they do for us- especially to have an on-call doctor! We have been so blessed that both Josh and I have such supportive parents!  Before we headed out the door we knelt down with our kids to have a family prayer for Kate.  I was a little emotional at this point- worried about how Kate was going to respond in upcoming days to the RSV. 

The hospital stay was all too familiar, but much better this time because I was able to stay, hold, and cuddle Kate the whole time...  AND I couldn't have asked for a better doctor to take care of her!  Kate responded well to the breathing treatments and improved quite quickly over the course of the two days. RSV is a virus that closes down the small airways in the lungs through inflammation. It makes breathing very hard.  Because it is a virus, there is not a lot that can be done for it except steroid and Albuterol treatments.  She was put back on oxygen, because her stats kept dropping.  Over the course of the hospital stay she caught up on some much needed sleep, she was exhausted.  I wouldn't consider a hospital a place of rest though!  It's virtually impossible to get any sleep with people coming in and out every couple hours-and I won't even comment on the beds.   I'm not much of a TV watcher, but I became addicted to HGTV.  I was a little worried about getting bedsores on my hiny, from sitting for so long.  By Thursday evening I was ready to be discharged- I was hoping for a long night of real sleep in my own bed (take into consideration Kate still eats every 3hrs.).  My dad came to take a look at Kate and she was doing pretty good.  He said, "Let's get her out of here before she catches something else."   She has continued to improve throughout the last two days.  Dr. Grandpa comes over each day to do in house check-ups.  Today he said he can hardly hear any crackling in her lungs now.  We have a couple more days of breathing treatments to give and hopefully only a few days to a week left on oxygen.  She still has such a sad little cry and cough due to the inflammation of her lungs. One of the side effects of RSV is that asthma is more prevalent in children that have had it.

I can testify once again that the power of prayer is real! Family and friends sent out immediate prayers as soon as they heard she had RSV.  She recovered quickly and her stay was short.  I have seen Kate overcome many hurdles and obstacles, which I know is in result to the prayers of many. 

 Kennadi had some awesome bed head:)

(Kate weighs 8.8 lbs. now.)



 I'm not looking forward to the next few months- the season- of the dreadful sickness circulation. My dad said it's already hitting hard this year.  I wish my kids could stay home from school until April to keep them out of the hot pot of germ stew each day!