After this went on for a couple of weeks, I alerted the nurse that I felt like we were at a key point - either she would kick it and we would get better or she would take a turn for the worse. On Tuesday, January 7th the daycare called and said she had a fever. We had just gone to the pulmonologist a few weeks prior and he indicated that he was not pleased that we had already used steroids this winter. He said that you get one big illness a winter but we had already had it in December. He did not think that was good so we changed up her maintenance inhaler. So when I got he call from the daycare, I hung up the phone and called the pulmonologist. I talked to the physician's assistant and her advice was to make sure Hailey was seen that day by a doctor. So if she couldn't get in with her pediatrician, we should go to urgent care. RSV was going around and that is more dangerous in asthmatics. I hung up the phone and panicked. Eric was in the UK and they couldn't fit her in at the pediatrician (it was already almost 3pm). I was terrified that they would send me to the ER.
We were surprised when she got a positive flu test at the urgent care place. Other than the fever, she was acting OK. She played quietly in the doctor's office and he indicated that is not typical with some of the flu that was going around. He prescribed tamiflu. They normally don't give it to kids her age, but she is high risk (boo!).
Tuesday through Thursday went OK. Hailey continued to stay pretty happy. A flu diagnosis meant she could not go to the Get Well Place at the daycare. My mom and dad were a huge help and watched her some each day so I could go into work for a little bit and to also help me with Kaitlyn duties. On Friday we went back for a follow-up at the pediatrician. I saw the PA and she was a little concerned that Hailey didn't sound that great. She sent us for a chest x-ray. Based on those results she indicated Hailey had a viral lung infection. I guess that is the problem with the viral induced asthma, one illness often leads to another. She prescribed an antibiotic but I indicated that I really wanted to avoid steroids again. It had only been 4 weeks since she was on steroids. So she gave us an aggressive plan with the inhalers. I was to do breathing treatments every 4 hours, 24 hours a day. Yikes, especially considering Eric was still in the UK. On Sunday if she hadn't improved, we would need to consider steroids.
The middle of the night breathing treatments went better than expected. She went to bed around 6:30 and I woke her up at 10 for the first treatment. She hardly moved. Thank goodness we aren't doing the nebulizer anymore and we are using the spacer. Much quicker! It looked like it took her a little while to fall back asleep, but she layed there quietly and listened to her music box. Then mommy went to sleep. I set an alarm for 2 and another for 6. Yuck. By the 6 am treatment, she cried a little. I think she was done with mommy waking her up! Trust me kid - mommy didn't like it either. Daddy was home for the Saturday night treatments and we traded off. Much better! And good news - she was doing much better on Sunday.
I followed up with the pulmonologist on that Monday and he was super pleased with how she sounded. We had made it through with no steroids!!
Here are some pics from the ordeal. This is the first day at urgent care:
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