Despite the many wishes for a relaxing night last night, that was not to be. Erin went to bed at 6:30 and Leah at 8pm. She got a dose of Benadryl at 7 so it would start working before bedtime. The coughing NEVER stopped. Eventually at 8:30, Leah threw up her dinner. At the risk of TMI, it was all clear mucous plus the food. So we cleaned her up and got her to sleep. At 9pm, Erin woke up crying and Mike went in to console her. After fifteen or so minutes, we decided just to let her cry it out. It worked within minutes and the child slept until 5:30am (!) in spite of what happened next...
I go to bed at 9:30 and to sleep at 10. At 1:30 I wake up to the sound of Leah coughing again. I go in and giver her another dose of Benadryl since she probably threw up most of the last one. After a few minutes more of coughing up a lung, she throws up yet again and we clean her up. I spend the next hour or so reading her stories and laying with her in bed talking all the while she is still coughing. Finally I can stand the coughing no more and make Mike take a shift. He brings her downstairs and feeds her because the poor child has NOTHING in her system. She kept saying she was hungry and who can blame her. It's not like she had a stomach bug, it was just the coughing triggering a reaction. Of course, she is not done coughing, so up comes all that food too. She falls asleep at 4:30 on one couch and Mike is on the other.
Upstairs, I can hear her coughing even with my door closed and so I don't actually fall asleep until she quiets down. Of course as soon as I am out, Erin wakes up to eat. Now she had been GREAT for sleeping so long, but I was so dead from everything else. She goes right back to sleep though. At 6:15 Mike gets me to switch with him, so he comes to bed and I go down to sleep on the couch with Leah.
When I get downstairs, she is coughing again, but she is not even awake. After maybe 15 minutes, we are both down for the count. That lasted until 8:30 when we all began our day...
Leah got another dose of the oral steroid this morning with breakfast and has had a WONDERFUL day, cough-wise. The doctor had said that exercise could trigger an "attack" if it really was asthma. Well, we were outside playing and Leah ran across the cul-de-sac a few times. The last time she came back coughing and had a minor fit. Then we had another minor fit in the car. But otherwise, it was all good. The meds were supposed to kick in this afternoonish and Leah just went to bed with NO coughing!!! Hallelujah!!!
So it is looking like asthma because the Benadryl seemed to have no effect. And she was looking better after 24 hours just like the doc said would happen if the steroids were working. At least we know where to begin now...
On another note, we went to Ray's Splash Planet today for a birthday party and Erin got in the pool for the first time! I will post pictures, well I was going to say when I got them off the camera. But instead I got my lazy butt up off the couch and and got the camera. So here they are!
3 comments:
Poor Leah! I hope that whatever it is gets under control soon so you can all sleep and so Leah isn't distracted (and throwing up) all day. :(
Yes, that picture of Erin and Mike is so cute! Looks like a fun place.
I'm sorry to hear that y'all have been having a rough time. Love ya to the mountains!
Poor Leah...it sounds like she is being a trooper though. Keep us posted!!!
Post a Comment