9.7.12

My Lunch Date

This sweet face was my lunch date today.  After a rough few days, I decided we should treat ourselves to our favorite French country cafe for lunch.

This was my girl around 1:15am Sunday morning.  We had to take a little trip to the pediatric emergency room after she experienced complications from an asthma attack.

The asthma attack occurred just before 1:00am Wednesday morning.  It totally took us by surprise, as there was absolutely no warning whatsoever.  Usually a flare up occurs gradually, and I am able to immediately begin treatment and avoid anything getting worse.  Not this time.  She'd been sleeping good at night, there wasn't any cough to speak of.  Nothing.  She had never done this before, and I'll admit it was scary.  So I jumped out of bed and immediately began a breathing treatment with her rescue medication.  It worked, and we were back to sleep shortly thereafter without further incident.  But I continued breathing treatments five times a day Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.  On Saturday it was obvious that the breathing treatments were not working, and she continued to get worse.  She coughed non-stop from the moment she woke up until the time I put her down for bed around 9:00.  Her last breathing treatment was at 8:00.  She was struggling so much that I sat in a chair beside her bed for the next two hours.  She would sleep for maybe five minutes at a time and then begin choking because she couldn't breathe in.  Just after 11:00, I couldn't take it anymore.  I'd done all I could do.  And I could no longer just sit there while she struggled to breathe, at times hardly able to catch her breath without choking.  So off to the emergency room we went.


We were admitted immediately, and she was given a breathing treatment.  She was also given an oral medication to reduce the swelling of her bronchial tubes.  The pediatric staff was so so nice.  We had a wonderful doctor, two nurses and respiratory therapist.  The good news was that her lungs sounded relatively good given the situation.  There was a little something going on in the lower registers of her lungs, but that began sounding better after the breathing treatment was administered.  The doctor also found a bit of fluid in her ear and was surprise that she hadn't complained of an ear ache.  But Hannah Kate insisted her ear did not hurt.  The doctor was satisfied with her rapid improvement so we were soon released and even made it home just after 2:00am.  I put her back to bed, and she slept soundly without further incident until 10:00 Sunday morning.  And, I have to say, for the first time in three months, I, too, slept "through the night."  I was just so tired that I guess even my bulging belly couldn't wake me.


We were given instructions to follow-up with our pediatrician this morning, and she was given an oral medication to take for four days.  We also have to continue the breathing treatments for awhile.  So this morning we saw Dr. K.  The really good news is that her lungs sounded completely normal, even the lower registers.  But the little bit of fluid in her ear had exploded into a severe ear infection, and Dr. K was stunned that Hannah Kate was not in any kind of severe pain.  So we were given an antibiotic to treat that, as well as provide additional treatment for her respiratory system.  Dr. K also said that if we have another incident as severe as this, we will have to begin exploring more aggressive preventative treatment.  Oh how I'm hoping we don't have to go there.


In the meantime, I'll be so glad when we finish these meds.  They make her absolutely crazy!  Seth has been calling her Lulu.  And she is!  She really is out of control, but we just have to be patient with that because we know it's due to the medication and not necessarily something she can control right now.


And as for Mason . . . well, he had a little bit of his own fun today.  He's somewhere in this picture of over 975 kids!  

This week Mason is attending Vacation Bible School at a rather large church in Baton Rouge.  Our friends invited him to go, and he was so excited!  Now.  We attend a little country church and average 50 in Sunday School.  We usually have around 100 at Vacation Bible School.  So last night I was explaining to him that there were going to be A LOT of kids at this particular VBS, and I asked him to guess how many.  He guessed 100.  I told him there would be nearly 1,000 kids there, and his eyes grew so big.  I think he was probably a little overwhelmed when he first got there, but he had a great time.  He told me this afternoon that the church was "ginormous!  Way bigger than our church, Mama."


I'm so excited that Mason is able to have this experience.  I've been a little concerned that he might come home asking yours truly why we don't do such-an-such at our VBS or have such-and-such . . . I mean, this is, I'm sure, over-the-top for him compared to what he's been used to.  But he didn't mention anything about that yet.  He just told me all about the games they played . . . and they got to dance . . . and he wants to take some money tomorrow because if the boys win, a boy gets to throw a pie at a girl, and he really wants to see that!


And here he is with his sweet friends, Kylie, Baylee and Braden.