I'm sitting at the gate in SJC headed to see Kevin in LA. He's there for the AEHF payload, or wing shipment.
24 hours ago this trip was in jeopardy. Olivia developed a bug Sunday evening resulting in vomiting, moaning, lethargy, and waking up throughout the night clearly in pain. Monday I dropped Kevin off at SFO while Charlie watched Olivia sleeping. He stuck around to watch her while I worked from home. Olivia's breathing was quite labored, and fast. After Charlie commented that she really should see a doc... so I was able to make an appointment with Olivia's primary care pediatrician and off we went! Little girl's oxygen level was around 92%. Dr Frey said she couldn't let us leave until it was back up to 95% or greater. We did a nebulizer, the albuterol inhaler again (all with constraining Olivia since she protests greatly), xrayed her lungs (no pneumonia), and finally administered a steroid injections after the doc recommended it to keep us from visiting the emergency room that night. The nebulizer and inhaler each raised Olivia's oxygen by 1-1.5%, so the injection was needed to push her over the 95% mark.
After another nap on the couch, while I dialed in to work calls, Olivia awoke with a little more sparkle in her eyes. She had been super lethargic all day and the change was welcome. We went to Chipotle for dinner and she picked at a few things while being in a generally happy mood. So good to see my little girl again!
Back at home, I was pooped from no sleep the night before and the stress of the day. Olivia and I both crawled into bed around 9 and after telling her a few times to stop fidgeting, we were out. There were a few bottle breaks at night, and she was kicking me at some point, but overall it was a good night. Waking together at 7 am was super sweet. My boss had let me off the hook the day before by telling me to go take care of my daughter today and not worry about making it to a few work meetings. that helped the stress level tremendously.
At today's follow up, Olivia was back to 100%, and her breathing was obviously better. She was also back to her normal spunky personality - the best part! Mommy was relieved, but not suprised. After all is said and done, we think she has a touch of asthma. Now I understand that means constricting muscles around the airways, inflamed passages, and increased mucous production. It seems to kick in when she's fighting some other cardiovascular bug. So, we will not hesitate to use the albuterol inhaler in the future... to avoid doctor visits.
