Saturday, March 17, 2012

Anastasia's Hospitalization

On March 9th, the morning the family was scheduled to go on a trip to Cambodia, Anastasia and I went to see the doctor since she had running a high fever, had a cough, and was acting very lethargic. After the doctor listened to her, he got very quiet (strange for Dr. Ravin) and had her go on the nebuliser and began to monitor her oxygen intake.

After a bit of discuss with the other doctor in the clinic, it was decided that Anastasia needed to go to the hospital to get looked at.  Dr. Ravin thought an ambulance would be too much of a headache and he didn't trust a taxi so he (and his nurse) drove us the the emergency room. Needless to say we were not going to Cambodia that afternoon.

In the car, the nurse sat in the back so A could stay on oxygen as we drove. When we got the hospital Dr. Ravin registered us while the doctor at the hospital took a look at Anastasia.  After nebulisation treatments and some observation it was decided that Anastasia had acute bronchiolitus. Basically Anastasia had a lung infection that inhibited her from breathing well, plus there was mucus plugged up in her lungs.

We were emitted to NUH with the intention of staying there for a couple of nights. We were placed in a room with 3 other beds until a single room opened up.

Anastasia keeping busy. This is her smile face.

Every time her oxygen level dipped below a certain number, she had to be put on oxygen, plus she had to have nebulisation treatments every hour.


A dear friend took Elyse for all of Saturday so Toby could be a t the hospital with us.

This is how Anastasia and I slept for 2 nights being interrupted every hour and then every 2 hours as the nebulisation treatments got spaced farther apart.
We learned that fro us to be able to go home, Anastasia had to be off oxygen and the nebuliser. We would go home when we could give her inhaler treatments 4 hours apart.  We were at that mark, when things got worse and we were back on the nebuliser every hour.

The only good thing was that we were moved to a single room.

During this time Toby and Elyse traveled to and from the hospital and unfortunately Elyse got sick too with a throat infection :(

Overall Anastasia did well with the masks she had to endure. Taking medicines and the inhaler (puff) was another story.

As she got better, she didn't have to have oxygen and then eventually she could get her IV out (oh yeah, she had a drip put in when she wouldn't eat or drink)

Finally after 5 nights Anastasia filled all of the requirements to go home. It was not fun and very nerve wracking, but we made it especially with the help of friends who called, stopped, by and cooked meals.

As we stand now Anastasia takes her "Puffs" 6 hours apart and has a few other medicines. I am watching her breathing carefully and am afraid I might miss some sign she is getting worse, but I think she is doing just fine. She is sleeping well and acting like herself. We go to the doctor on Monday.

As for Elyse, her fever is gone and we were able to go to Disney on Ice with her friends today :)

It has been a long, tiring week, but we made it with help from God and our friends.

2 comments:

Camille, Blake, Pierce and baby Asher said...

Praise God... these pics make tears well in my eyes... so happy that she is better...

Aunt Pat said...

You all did a great job.