Kaitlyn had a bit of an adventure this last week.
We’ve all been a bit sick lately, and it had looked like Kaitlyn was going to steer clear of it all… until last weekend. Then she started developing a nasty sounding cough. That cough got worse, and then was coupled with pretty severe chest congestion. By Tuesday, she was very lethargic. It was quite pathetic to see her on Tuesday afternoon, she was breathing okay, but whenever she was upset or excited, the breathing was much more labored. So Sharon called the doctor.
The conversation with the doctor was not encouraging. Here’s a brief overview of how the conversation went:
Sharon: Kaitlyn is coughing a lot, has pretty bad chest congestion, and struggles to breathe from time to time.
Doc: Give her a nasal saline spray.
Sharon: Umm, but she has chest congestion, not nasal.
Doc: Go ahead and give her a nasal saline spray.
Sharon: What? Umm, okay.
At that point, Sharon gets off the phone and we keep an eye on Kaitlyn to see how she’s doing. Of course, it’s getting worse, and Kaitlyn vomits on the Sharon as soon as she gets picked up. So they go upstairs, clean up, and Sharon calls the doctor again before going to the ER.
Sharon explains that there are the same symptoms, and throw vomiting in.
Doc: Yeah, maybe you should take her in. It sounds like some respiratory distress.
Ya think, Doc? Maybe if you listened before, instead of hearing “congestion” and going straight to saline spray, you could have recommended something better.
So Kaitlyn spent two nights in the hospital. She had managed to get both the flu and croup at the same time. They gave her plenty of medicine too, which, while kind of slow to take effect (at least for us), really helped Kaitlyn feel better. Her breathing was still pretty labored the first full day in the hospital, but was getting better that night, and by the second day, she was well on her way to recovery. It was very strange to see everyone come into Kaitlyn’s room wearing masks, while we’re all there just doing our thing. I totally understand it – they don’t want to pick up the flu. And yes, Kaitlyn had a flu shot. Just goes to show that they picked the wrong ones to protect against.
She’s still a bit sick, with coughing and some shortness of breath. But it’s much better than what it was just a couple days ago. We’re all quite happy to have this incident behind us, especially Kaitlyn.
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