Monday, November 10, 2008

Sick T Rex - Pediatric Infant Asthma Exacerbation

Mom took me to my pediatrician's nurse practitioner today after I had a horrible night of coughing. I've had a cold on and off for a few weeks but it seemed to be getting better. Yesterday it turned ugly - ugly green and yellow to be specific. Then the coughing began - lots and lots of coughing. At 8:00 pm, only 30 minutes after I went to bed, I woke up crying and coughing, coughing and crying. Then the moaning started. Since Dad had given me a breathing treatment at 7:00 we could not do anything else. Several times Mom and Dad considered taking me to the ER except they would probably do about the same things we were doing at home, and Mom being a nurse, she set up the port-a-crib next to their bed and we all attempted to sleep to the hum of the cool mist humidifier.

The next morning, I would not go back to sleep after 5:30 am so Dad got up with me and we played a little before he did another breathing treatment at 7:30. Mom got up and declared, to Dad's agreement, that it was time to get some antibiotics.

When the nurse practitioner saw us, she knows Mom fairly well since she is one of her customers, she was concerned that it had only been a couple of hours since my last breathing treatment and already I was wheezing bad again. After much convincing, Mom agreed to allow me to take the oral steroids.

Here's my current cocktail of meds every day:
Pulmicort Respules 0.5 mg/2ml nebulized twice daily (breathing treatment)
Xopenex 0.63mg/3ml nebulized as needed but recently averaging 1 - 2 times/day (another breathing treatment)
Xyzal 1/2 tsp daily antihistamine for allergies
Here's what was added:
Amoxicillin 400mg/5 ml 1 tsp twice daily for sinus infection
Prednisolone 15mg/5 ml 3 ml once daily for asthma exacerbation

Here's what Mom has been doing to ease my irritability and teething issues - yes, it all has to happen at the same time!!!
Infant Tylenol 1.2 ml as needed
Children's Mortrin 3.6 ml twice daily

I feel like a pharmacy in and of myself! Hopefully all this makes me feel better soon or I earn a trip to the hospital. We'll keep you posted. At least I managed to get a small nap in this afternoon!



My asthma doctor just called and completely concurs with the nurse practitioner so we are good to go and I should be feeling like my old self as soon as I'm done with these horrible oral steroids - the inhaled ones don't bother me. Forty-five minutes after I took my first dose I became moody and irritable. I demanded constant attention or holding until I went to sleep.

More updates as I allow Mom the time!

1 comment:

Caitlin said...

Poor Baby! We will be thinking of him tonight, and praying that he will be well soon! And that TRex Mommy and Daddy can get some sleep too!