Pneumonia

Maddie and I spent all of Wednesday cuddled up.

Poor thing was sooo miserable, but luckily she slept for the majority of the day. I was pretty nervous all night. She was breathing hard and her heart rate was way up. I used my skills as Dr. Google to determine an accelerated heart rate is typical with fevers. Still. The morning couldn’t come fast enough. Really. Because she was up ALL NIGHT whimpering and crying. It was so terrible, poor little baby.

Dr. Looove saw Maddie this morning. Maddie’s pulse ox level, which should be between 95-100, was at 82. After examining her and listening to her breathe, she wanted an X-Ray of Maddie’s chest. After the films came back, the Dr. decided that Maddie is in the beginning stages of pneumonia. Goodie. Well, it’s better than RSV. I think.

The only thing that is keeping Maddie out of the hospital is the Oxygen Rocket. I never thought I’d be happy to have that thing, but it has come in handy MULTIPLE times. Now that she is so active, I can’t IMAGINE Maddie in a hospital bed. Everyone within earshot would suffer.

Maddie’s treatment includes breathing treatments every four hours (just as we’d successfully weaned her down to only three a day, damn), oral steroids (prednisone), antibiotics (azythromycin), and the most difficult thing: she has to be on oxygen 24 hours a day. This is going to be REALLY hard. Look at all the different adhesives and tape we had to use to get her nasal cannula on her face:

And YES she is SMILING YET AGAIN. As soon as she saw the camera she started smiling (I really need to get the kid an agent). It was one of the few times she smiled all day. Even the nurses & Dr. Looove commented on how sad she seemed.

My mom came down to help us out, since I have caught the bug that is infecting Maddie. My mom is a freaking saint, y’all. We definitely need her extra hands right now. Hopefully I’ll be feeling better soon, but since Maddie has to be on 24 hour oxygen, she is tethered to the extremely large and heavy oxygen rocket. That means someone has to ALWAYS be with her. It’s a lot like being in the hospital, but without vitals every four hours, and I have my tivo! Silver linings, y’all.

For now, Maddie is sleeping, and that is good. Her whimpers of pain and confusion break my heart. I can’t wait until she grows out of these junky preemie lungs.