A Long Week...and A Velntine's Day Tradition

It has been a while since I posted anything new and I thought that I would explain...Jeff has been on night shift this week which means I have to keep the kids & house quiet while he sleeps...Sometimes we go out to the store or whatever just to be out for a while...ANYWAY, Monday night Kaitlyn got in the shower and Madelyn decided to join her...I told her she could have a bath in the morning but she still got in.
So I was mad and sent her to bed. She coughed all night and I was mad about that too since I was tired. Tuesday morning she was coughing and Jeff gave her some albuterol to help her breathing. She got a few puffs throughout the day and by the time he was waking up to go to work, she had blown into a full asthma attack...beyond what we could do. So I canceled my class and took her to the hospital. They took her oxygen level and it was pretty low. They also took swabs for RSV and Flu...(our county is third highest in the state for both of those right now). After waiting an hour and a half, I went back to the desk to see what they were going to do. I thought her breathing was worse than when we got in and when they checked her oxygen again they decided to let her in (to the ER). We went back there and got her all hooked up. I really just thought they would treat her and let us go...it was about 7:30 when we went back there. The tests came back negative for both RSV and Flu...but her white cell counts were high. There has to be a reason for that...So they did a blood test...she flipped out. And had her do a urine test to see if any infections showed up somewhere...None. They did a blood culture test to see what kind of bacteria they could find....too...We got admitted at about 12:00 and made it up to a room by about 1:00am. By about 2:00 am we were ready for sleep...meaning we were able to go to sleep after being kept awake for about 6 more hours than we like to be. Then they woke us up at 5:00am for another breathing treatment.
I thought that by (Wednesday) morning they would come in and tell us she was fine and could go home. They kept doing the breathing treatments and had her on oxygen but every time they took her off her oxygen would drop into the 80s again...For this reason they decided to keep her there until that became stabilized. Madelyn is feeling fine by now and acting like her normal self and is pretty mad that she has to be hooked up to all these machines and can't go and do whatever she wants. The doctors only come in once a day to tell what they think so this meant that we were there until the next morning at least.
Thursday morning came around and I was sure they would let us go. First of all, she has been doing great on the oxygen and her color is back and all that good stuff. Plus, its Valentine's day and Bronson's birthday. I want out. The doctor came in and said all the tests they have done so far have been fine and good and negative etc...He says as soon as they get the results back from the cultures they did which he was sure would be negative he would let us go...The cultures they took on Tuesday night when we got there...They take 48 hours to get results back. And the doctors only come in once a day....So we were there another day. I said I would slip him a twenty if he let us go today instead...He didn't fold.
We waited one more day Bronson was a good sport and let us postpone his b-day festivities a day. By mid-day Madelyn was unhooked from all the equipment. Her oxygen was at 96 most of the day. Her IV was messed up so they took it out and said she would be okay without it. And she only had breathing treatments every four hours, which last about 4 minutes. I was all good but we wanted to go home.
This morning the Dr. came in and said the cultures were negative and her oxygen was 100 all on her won and we could leave. HALLELUJAH!
We were out in less than an hour. I have never been released so fast from any hospital. But we were ready to go.
Its funny because I told Jeff that in the last ten years I have spent three different Valentine's days in the hospital. This week with Madelyn, three years ago when Bronson was born, and ten years ago on my mission when my companion swallowed her hearing aid battery...good times!!!