RSV

Abby pictured above with Grazer, a dear and trusted friend.

She started getting sick yesterday morning. We immediately recognized the tell tale signs of an illness as soon as we got her out of her crib... she sneezed and showered me with snot. Her temp was 101.1 so we gave her Tylenol and decided to hibernate here at the house like we normally do when the kids are sick.

Early afternoon she started seizing like she occasionally does with a high fever. As the minutes passed it didn't stop, even with the Diastat (emergency med we use at home). Off to the ER we went, helplessly watching Abby struggle to breathe and trying to do everything possible to keep her airway open while in the car.

Once in the ER they took her straight back, despite the waiting room guards' earnest attempt to have me "take a seat, and fill out the registration forms." She was still struggling to breathe and was still seizing. After finally successfully starting an IV she was given 4 more meds to stop the seizure. Meanwhile her breathing was becoming more and more labored. They tried the mask, the nasal trumpet and then resorted to bagging her. Before we could catch our breath she was sedated and intubated (put on a ventilator).

She spent the night in the PICU to be monitored. Thankfully after only 7 hours she was weaned down on her vent settings and was able to be extubated (taken off the vent) last night! She slept so much better after the tube came out, and so did I.

We found out she does have RSV which was probably the reason for her respiratory distress yesterday during the prolonged seizure. She is still running a fever today and has a horrible sounding cough, but despite it all her vitals are stable and she is able to rest.

As of now (Mon. 3 pm) she is still in PICU but we anticipate moving to the peds floor this evening. Our biggest fear now is that she will develop a pneumonia from the RSV phlegm on top of the likely hood of aspiration during her seizure yesterday. We are waiting for the docs to make rounds and give us report on her chest x-ray this morning.

Check back later for more pics and update.