we couldn't escape the curse!

It finally caught up to us. All of the first year med students with kids have been cursed with terrible illnesses and we were not spared. Hopefully this is the end of hospitalization for all of the little boys!

Zeb has RSV. boo to rsv. Respiratory syncytial virus: It affects babies the worst, especially those under six months. Most toddlers get it but it doesn't advance to the lower respiratory tract. Really it's just a bad cold. Adults and older children carry and pass it but show no symptoms and it's the number one cause of pneumonia in babies under 12 months. I'm glad zeb's didn't progress that far! and apparently he shouldn't be of too much harm to all of the rugrats he came in contact with this week. Just no babies under one or really old people. oh, and here's the blurb I found on the CDC's website about prevention of rsv; "As the virus is ubiquitous in all parts of the world, avoidance of infection is not possible". kinda discouraging, huh?

With Zeb, it all really started yesterday. The poor little guy just couldn't breathe on his own without his chest working pretty hard so I went to the pediatrician's office where they gave him a breathing treatment. It helped, but not as much as it was supposed to so they had to give him another one right away. I guess if the doctor's office has to administer back to back treatments then they are forced to admit the baby to the hospital. I am really glad that we went in when we did!
Kent was in dissections and I told him to get as much done as he could and then head over to Toledo Children's Hospital. I knew it would take awhile before we got admitted and all settled in so I wasn't too worried. I am a relatively calm person when it comes to things like this. Little did I know what was in store for my poor innocent sweet little boy. It was HELL. He really hated the breathing treatments but his crying didn't bother me because I knew it wasn't hurting him. He just didn't like the cold aerosol or the noise. It was the following procedure that was more like torture. They made me hold him down (his arms and face) and then they shoved these awful tubes up his nose and down his throat. He SCREAMED and FOUGHT and WRETCHED and HEAVED as they sucked all of the sputum out of his lungs and air passages. They had to go in through both nostrils repeatedly. I closed my eyes and tears just streamed down my face. Because he resisted so much there was lots of blood coming up with the phlegm. They did it a total of six times while we were there! I refused to be present for the other five sessions. Kent did four of them and I made a nurse hold him when Kent had to go back to school. I just couldn't watch them stick those tubes down his nose. He actually slept really well and made the best possible progress through the night! They discharged him today at two after a final torture session. Thank heavens Kent could make it back from classes for the final "hold down".

They sent us home with our very own nebulizer for keeps! Because of my family history of asthma (dad and daysa) they said he may need it more often with other colds he gets. We have to give him treatments every four hours for the next 2-3 days. I got lots of practice on daysa (my little sis) when she was younger so it shouldn't be too rough. They even sent him home with a cool little turtle/dragon mask!
Although our experience was by no means pleasant, some good things came of it! The munchkin will now actually stretch out his arms to come to me! I think things were a little traumatic and he realizes I'm not so bad after all. Plus, we got to meet some really great people. We had a 2 month old little boy roommate this morning and we got to talk with his dad, Antoine, quite a bit. plus, one of the respiratory therapists was Russian! She sang Russian lullabies to Zeb and we got to have a great talk about the church! we also had a great nurse who asked lots of questions about the church as well. Meeting new people is one of my favorite things ever! let's hope it happens under better circumstances next time. oh, and how could I forget?! we got lots of free expensive diapers.
here's Zeb reading his favorite book. His favorite page is the "bumpy paws" page. He'd scratch at the paws forever if we let him.