2nd on with RSV

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post #1 of 14

1/29/09 at 5:04pm

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467 Posts. Joined 6/2005
Location: Somerset County, NJ
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We've been stuck in the hospital since Monday night now.. Maya has RSV. She's had a cold since last week and we were keeping an eye on it. Monday she was acting extra sleepy and wouldn't nurse for longer than a couple minutes. Then we noticed her breathing was very rapid and labored. Her temp. was around 99.5. We called her dr. and decided since it was night (and there was no way I could sleep while worrying) that we'd bring her to the e.r. Ran so many tests - including a spinal tap!.- and they determined it was RSV. Thankfully she's super strong and they haven't had to do more than give O2 and breathing treatments. We had some scary moments but as of today we r out of the ICU. She started nursing again (she went on a little strike since she couldn't breathe) and I think I've prob. maxed out the freezer here with my stash of pumped milk. Now we r just waiting til she can breathe without the oxygen...hopefully it'll be soon.

I'm so bummed this is how we r spending our 2nd week.. technically she wasn't even due til today and she's already been through so much!

Hope no one else in our group has to deal with this.

Oh my, I am so sorry--your story sounds familiar, almost exactly what happened with Eloise. I haven't been on here in 3 weeks because of following up with her, it just threw us all off the first little while.

We went to our local children's hospital urgent care, so when they did the testing, they mentioned a spinal tap--the doc took one look at my face and said, let's just run the RSV test first and see how it comes back!!! I think she knew she'd have a major fight on her hands. I knew that test was for menengitis, but Eloise didn't have her vitamin K yet so I was really leary of doing anything that invasive. We ended up doing the vitamin K upon admission so the deep suctioning for the RSV wouldn't hurt her in terms of bleeding/bruising. But still!

Just be prepared for it to get worse for 3-5 days before it gets better. We went in the minute she ran a fever, like you did, and spent 48 hours at the hospital but did not need O2 or IV fluids, and only needed deep suctioning a couple of times. They sent us home, and she did well for 48 hours, and then worsened. It was scary and discouraging to go back. When we went back in, she needed all the treatments, and we were there from Thursday to Sunday. Then we've been home since, but I've had 1 or 2 sleepless nights where I've been worried about her.

Then, she's still congested (our Dr. said that could be another month or two) and it makes her gag, so we have a lot of spit-ups, which bugs me. I try not to worry as long as she seems satisfied, has poops, and is gaining, but I'll be honest, I worry about her intake since she vomits so much. ARGH. Just hang in there, it does get better, just know it will take time and this will be a rough winter recovering from it.

It's hard to not take my toddler to the park on days it gets above freezing here, but I just know I can't have her out in the weather until spring comes. . .just a few more weeks!

post #12 of 14

2/4/09 at 10:31pm

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467 Posts. Joined 6/2005
Location: Somerset County, NJ
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thanks Ebeth0000 for sharing your story. hope eloise is doing well. we just got home from the hospital this afternoon. it was the 8 loonnggest days of our lives. maya is doing much better, i'm just a paranoid mess (my husband is already sick of me checking to see if she's breathing). she actually never really got worse from the first full day we were there.. they kept warning us about that in the hospital. we did lots of breathing treatments and lots of deep suctioning but by day 5 we were really just waiting on getting her off the o2. every day we'd think we'd be going home and she just couldn't do it without the o2. finally today they came to tell us we could go (and i was still not sure i wanted to leave.. 3 doctors had to tell me to get out!) i'm on my way to bed and i doubt i'll get any real sleep even though we need it after sleeping in a chair the past week. really, once we knew maya was doing better, the worst part of it all was leaving our 3 year old. she'd never even been away from us for longer than a night and it was especially hard on her. we're lucky to have great parents that helped more than imaginable but she's a little resentful. it's like jeckyl and hyde here at our house. one minute she's normal ella, next minute she's screaming and freaking out (she wasn't like this pre-baby). bad enough to get a new baby sister.. then mom and dad up and leave for a week!
thanks to everyone for the well wishes! i hope to never have to see a hospital again!

p.s.- we've been having a couple episodes of projectile vomiting as well! if i stop her during a feeding to burp her, it seems to make it less frequent. i can't believe how much can come out at once!

post #13 of 14

2/5/09 at 12:13am