A First We Could Have Skipped

Meagan has made a lot of progress in the last month especially, hitting some firsts we'd been waiting on for quite a while.  Unfortunately, this week, she has hit another "first" but one we certainly could have done without - her first cold. Ugh. She is miserable!!

Starting to not feel well

It started out like any other cold my other kids have had - a little fussy, runny nose..etc.. and I knew what was coming.  I didn't think anything of it even when she got a fever - very typically, this is how my other girls' colds had progressed as infants.  At this point, I was kind of glad to also see the cold symptoms because I knew the fever was from the cold and not from a shunt infection, so that part of it was a relief... still, though, I hated to see my baby uncomfortable.  I continued to treat her cold like I did with any of my other kids - steam, Vicks, keeping her upright, saline and suctioning..etc..  Her congestion just didn't seem to budge.  Then, later that same night, Meagan started gagging - not the typical coughing gag my other kids had done, but, literally gagging to the point her face and lips turned blue. Very blue.  I, the one who normally can keep my composure, of course completely freaked out.  I went over to her and immediately put her more upright and started to pat her on the back hoping to loosen up the phlegm that was choking her. She finally sucked in a big "Ahhhh" breath and returned to normal coloring. Whew.  It was VERY scary.  She recovered afterwards, and I watched her closely for a while.  She had no other incident, so there didn't seem to be a need to go to the ER. However,  I knew right then we'd be visiting the doctor the next day...

Yesterday came, and we went to see the Pediatrician.  Sure enough, she heard a lot of wheezing in Meagan's chest and a ton of congestion. She decided to give her a breathing treatment to see if it would help break things up and also decided to do an RSV test in the meantime.  Luckily, and much to my relief, her RSV test came up negative.  After her breathing treatment, Dr. Brugner listened to her again and the wheezing had been broken up.  Conveniently, we had a nebulizer machine at home due to my oldest daughter needing quite a few breathing treatments during her infancy... so we got the prescription for the medication and headed home. Dr. Brugner said if it worsened at all or she didn't improve to of course come back - if anything worse developed to take her to Children's. 

Last night Meagan had a few more gagging sessions, and also had one today. She recovered from each one though, so I keep her upright and keep doing all the home remedies we know of to help with that nasty congestion and drainage.  We also started her nebulizer treatments at home, so hopefully they start to work better in the next day or so.  The poor thing is coughing so badly and barely has a voice.  You can hear the 'rattles' in her chest and she is SO congested.

Unfortunately, another "side effect" of the "common cold" for this little baby is the return of seizures.  Due to her up and down fevers and the cold virus, her seizures are acting up again.  We talked to a few other Hydro families and apparently this is common when the kids with seizures are sick.  Hopefully she can kick this cold soon because not only do I want to see her feeling better from this nasty congestion, but I'd like her seizures to go away again too!! We'll keep you posted .... I'm really REALLY hoping these breathing treatments work.  While I'm appreciative for all Children's has done for Meagan, I'd REALLY like to NOT end up there again! Grrr...

Taking her treatments like a real trooper

Resting after her treatment and a bath.  Hope this nasty cold goes away SOON!