Proud, New Owners

Yes, that's right, we are the proud, new owners of a.....

....nebulizer machine. Something I had never hoped to own.

Wednesday Peyton, Gavin, and I all began to exhibit various cold symptoms...once again. By Thursday we were all coughing, sniffling, blowing, etc. By evening Gavin was sounding a little raspy and by Friday morning he was wheezing. I called the dr.'s office and thankfully they were able to get me in at 11:45. He spent the majority of the morning lying on the floor. By the time we arrived he was having a hard time talking and was clearly laboring to breath with high respirations.

His oxygen level was at 90, with his breathing so loud the nurse practitioner said she could hear it without the stethoscope. They gave him a breathing treatment and his level went up to 92. Better, but not great. She sent us to the hospital for a chest x-ray to rule out other respiratory conditions. Apparently they didn't see anything serious because they sent us home with a copy of the x-rays and told us the dr.'s office would give us the final news in 2-3 days.

We dropped off orders for five prescriptions that afternoon. A nebulizer machine, complete with a dragon mask, was delivered at 4:30. I was so thankful to see it because Gavin's breathing was becoming labored again. A neighbor sat at the house while I went to pick up the prescriptions.

The breathing treatment didn't seem to have much of an effect on his breathing. At 8:00 I decided to take him to the Acute Care Center. I figured if I didn't take him in then we'd be making a trip to the ER in the middle of the night. His oxygen level was at 94, just three hours after a breathing treatment. They gave him some more steroids (because Mommy mistook the directions on the bottle!) and another breathing treatment. His level went up to 98, so he was discharged a little while later. The dr. at Acute Care sent me home with papers saying he was having spasms due to bronchitis. Apparently all the medicines he was given were still appropriate, but the dr. was not convinced it was asthma.

Since the allergist, nurse practitioner, Jason, and I all think Gavin has been exhibiting some asthma symptoms, I do feel this is asthma induced by a chest cold. I am hoping though, that the allergist can suggest a test or refer us to a pulmanologist so we can get some better answers.

Tomorrow morning we go back to the dr.'s office for a follow-up visit. I'm hoping the news is good and that within a week we'll be able to get off of some of the medicines he is currently on.

There's always something exciting going on at the Rice household!