RSV

Well....James' 2nd week of daycare has turned out to be a crappy one. The dreaded 3 letter abbreviation of all nursing moms with kids in daycare....RSV. James has been battling a cough off and on for a few weeks now. The first week his cough was more dry. I took him in just for peace of mind and turns out it was viral (which I already knew). We had been doing the regimen of humidifier at night, elevating his head in bed/letting him sleep in the rock n' play, saline and suction, steam showers. You name it and we did it religiously day in and day out. The cough kind of subsided after a few days until earlier this week I noticed his cough was getting worse. I had toyed with the idea of taking him in on Tuesday night, but didn't really want to risk our lives driving in the snow/ice storm during rush hour after work. So, I decided we should wait it out another night.

Wednesday I had a feeling I should call and talk to the triage nurse (who also happens to be a nursing school friend and former colleague of mine) to pick her brain. We both agreed it would probably be best to bring James in to be tested for RSV. I picked him up from daycare around 3 and we headed for the pediatrician's office. At check in his O2 sats were perfect at 100% and he was as happy as a clam despite his nasty cough and congestion. Dr. D decided we should test for RSV so we did and it was POSITIVE. Ugh! She also said it seemed like it was pretty early and hadn't reached it's peak yet. Awesome (insert sarcasm here). So, we left the the Dr's office and were instructed to return if his symptoms got worse and we were advised to keep him home for a week.

Thursday came and he still seemed pretty full of junk. Cough was about the same. John decided he would stay home with him so, away to work I went. I got home at about 5:00 to find James wheezing and retracting. I told John we immediately needed to go see Dr. D. So we loaded up immediately and away we went. We got to the dr's office and it was apparent that his breathing really became more labored during the 30 minute drive. Dr. D agreed that he was wheezing and working pretty hard to breathe, so we started with a breathing treatment to see if that would help. Ten minutes of screaming later, the breathing treatment didn'tseem to make a difference. Next up, deep suction. Mommy had to step out for this part (despite having had to deep suction many babies in my patient care days). The deep suction did wonders for reducing his wheezing and labored breathing. Dr. D decided admission wasn't necessary given that his oxygen saturation was perfect and he was eating/peeing just fine. So, home we went with the instruction to return on Friday if the congestion was still bad.

John stayed home again on Friday while I went to work. James' congestion was still pretty bad so John took him in again in the afternoon. Poor baby got deep suctioned for a second time. My heart broke that I wasn't there,  but John said he did good. He and James got home at about 6 and it was all snuggles from that point on. James was pretty worn out had no problem falling asleep.

Saturday morning James seemed to be less congested (yay!). John had been told to bring him in again if he was congested when he woke up. But since he seemed to have improvement in his symptoms, no trip to see Dr. D was needed.

Slowly but surely he's on the mend. RSV is so scary. Especially in a 13 week old. We pray that he continues to improve and feel better.  As much as I hate to say it, but I'm sure this is only the beginning of daycare sicknesses.....

Despite this week of sickness, he has still remained happy and smiley. :)