Tag Archives: pneumonia

A Night in the ER

At church on Sunday morning, I went to get Faith out of the nursery and she seemed to feel like she had a slight fever. Even Miss Vickie thought that she just wasn’t acting like herself. I didn’t give it too much thought, but I did keep her home from the pool that afternoon when I went with Wilson. When I got home from the pool Faith’s breathing was a little loud. She seemed to wheezing a little, but I still didn’t think that it was that big of a deal. Having three kids means that someone always has a runny nose. It isn’t shocking that a slight fever might be there too. Most of the time, both go away on their own and we usually live life with them coming and going. I compared it to when Miller had Croup. He coughed and coughed and there was nothing I could do about it. I just had to wait it out past the worse day and knew that the next day would be better. I thought this was sort of the same thing.

This time, however, it didn’t go away. Her breathing became more and more labored. I researched wheezing on the internet and it said that I should put her in a steamy bathroom to help alleviate the symptoms. It did say that if she had trouble breathing that I should take her to a doctor. I thought, “Well, she is breathing fine. It is just a little noisy.” Faith fell asleep while I was putting Miller to bed. Her breathing was getting very noisy and progressively more difficult. I kept checking on her while Tom and I watched TV and I was becoming more concerned. Still, I did nothing.

By 10:00pm she was complaining of a stomach ache and her breathing was terrible. I called the nurse at the pediatrician’s office, she listened to Faith breathe, and said, “You need to take her to the hospital.” I called my parents to come over to sit with the boys while Tom and I took Faith to the hospital. We went to Matthews Novant Health Hospital (used to be Presbyterian Hospital but recently got bought out). The pediatrician’s office recommended the one uptown, but I had already been to the Matthew’s hospital a few times. It felt more comfortable. I am glad we did go there.

We arrived at the hospital around 11:00pm and Faith looked and sounded terrible. They brought us back, checked her in, and a short while later the doctor/nurse practitioner came in. They began to give Faith breathing treatments to open up her lungs and help her to breathe. Then they took x-rays of her chest because they thought that she might have pneumonia. She did. I have no idea how she got pneumonia. She barely ever had a fever and her runny nose had just started the day before. She did have a stuffy nose for weeks, but that is pretty common with Faith. Again, nothing to worry about typically.

By the time we left the hospital at 3:30am Faith had received three breathing treatments, a liquid steroid, and a prescription for her pneumonia. She was also completely hyped up! It was like she was on crack! She was talking and talking and talking. This was the complete opposite of how she walked into the hospital. When we walked in she could barely speak and now she was bouncing off the walls. She kept saying, “I am so hyper-ed.” It was cute. Tom and I even slept a little in her hospital bed while she climbed all over us. I was so out of it for part of the time that I didn’t even notice. I do remember her pulling on my ear at one point. I was just thankful that my little girl was feeling better and breathing normally.

I now know what wheezing is, what it sounds like when it starts getting bad, and that it doesn’t go away on its own. This was one of those experiences that I consider a learning experience. It is also one that makes me very thankful for modern medicine. I am thankful that Faith is feeling better and I am praying that we don’t have to go through this again. Because hers was related to pneumonia and not asthma, we should not be having this problem with her again. So thankful!

Here we are before the treatment began..

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Here she is with her new teddy bear that the hospital gave her before we left…

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