Well, what a couple of days it has been for poor little Olivia (and Mommy, too!). So yesterday was her big eye appointment with the ophthalmologist that specializes in babies to see if her tear ducts really are blocked and talk about the next steps (i.e. surgery). So after a 2-hour appointment with much poking and prodding by several nurses (all very nice) and the doctor (including getting her eyes dilated!!), it has been confirmed – Olivia’s eyes both have blocked tear ducts so she will need surgery to open them up. They say that the vast majority (something like 80-90%) of babies that have blocked tear ducts outgrow it by the time they are 1 – nope, not little Olivia – so we’ll need to go through a quick little surgery to get that corrected. So that wasn’t the best of news, but at least we know that we can get her eyes fixed so she won’t tear up all the time. Her main problem isn’t that she can’t produce tears (she does that just fine), it’s that her eyes don’t re-absorb them so it always looks like she is crying. When we were at the beach her eyes just watered the whole time and she couldn't even keep them open at all when we were outside. We had to make her wear sunglasses the whole time. Poor thing! We’ll have to schedule the surgery for about 3 weeks out since she has a cold and they don’t want to risk putting her under for the surgery with her being sick.
Well, on a lighter note, when we left the ophthalmologists office after her eyes had been dilated, they gave her some of those tacky plastic stick on sunglasses to wear outside so the sun wouldn't be so bright and she actually kept them on. She even fell asleep in the backseat with them on so I snapped a quick picture of her with my phone. Take a look:
Well, on a lighter note, when we left the ophthalmologists office after her eyes had been dilated, they gave her some of those tacky plastic stick on sunglasses to wear outside so the sun wouldn't be so bright and she actually kept them on. She even fell asleep in the backseat with them on so I snapped a quick picture of her with my phone. Take a look:
How funny is that!!!??!!
Anyway, well while we were at that doctor’s office – her cold began to get worse and she started wheezing and her coughing was getting much worse – they suggested that we go get it checked out at our regular pediatrician . . . so that’s where we went this morning (ALL morning!). First of all, let me just say that I LOVE our pediatrician’s office. They are all wonderful. All 4 doctors and the PA are wonderful, the nurses are all great and I LOVE that we can call them any night to ask questions at ANY time and they get right back to us and they have walk in hours 7 days a week! If anyone needs a pediatrician – check out Carolina Kids Pediatrics on Blue Ridge Road. They are awesome. That being said – let me tell you about what all we went through with them just this morning (and what a morning it was!)
Ok, so we went for the walk in hours and when the doctor came in we explained about the wheezing and coughing and that we had had bronchiolitis once before in the past and I was worried that’s what was happening again. He did the usual looking in her mouth, ears etc. Well, let’s take it one orifice at a time . . .ok, mouth: yeah, she’s teething REALLY bad – the top molars are breaking through and the bottom ones are well on their way. Her gums are incredibly swollen and look really painful! That explains some of the crankiness of late. The ears - one ear looked good, the other had a lot of wax build-up, so he had me hold her down so he could clean it out – yup there was some fluid in there (he said he wasn’t sure if it was an infection or just due to the cold and he would re-check it after we dealt with the wheezing – I’ll get back to that).
Ok, so onto the wheezing, well, he explained to me that when an infant/toddler gets bronchiolitis the first time they usually just chalk it up to a virus and say no big deal, but when it happens a second time, they start to worry a bit. This was our second time. The thing is, it can be a precursor to asthma (yeah, this is when I start panicking!) It’s only about a 50/50 chance, but still not good. He said not to get ahead of ourselves yet because most of them that have signs this young tend to grow out of it by the time they are 3 years old and that is only IF that is really what is going on – the only way to know is to give her albuterol (an asthma medication given through a nebulizer/breathing device like a hospital oxygen mask) and see if it works). Well, that’s what they decided to do. They brought in the machine to give her the medicine and it takes about 10 minutes or so for her to get it all and she HATED every single second of it. (and so did I). It took me and the nurse both to hold her down to keep the mask on her as she screamed and fought us the whole time. It was awful! She fought so hard that she eventually passed out.
Well, after that was done, the doctor came back in and listened to her breathing again and told us he had good news and bad news. The good news – her breathing was clear – the bad . . . she was responding well to the asthma medicine, which isn’t a good sign. He said that what is most likely going on is that instead of her dealing with a regular cold the normal way, her body overreacts to it and her bronchioles (in the lungs) become inflamed and swell making it hard to breathe. The medicine helps to open them up. So, when she gets a cold now, we will have to give her this medicine with the nebulizer as often as every 4-6 hours (as needed with the wheezing) and keep our fingers crossed that she’ll grow out of this. So, now I have to get a nebulizer – they actually let me borrow one from the doctor’s office until I can get one myself. I’ve already had to do it again to her on my own here at home – she did a little better, but still hates it.
One more thing – so after we talked about all of that, the doc looked at her ears again (apparently the medicine also helps open the ear canals to help see in them), well, yup, she also has an ear infection! Great! At least it’s not a severe one yet, but still not good! There’s more to this story, but I can’t get into all of it yet – I’ll fill you all in on all of that next time. But let’s just say this is REALLY not good! So, she’ll need an antibiotic, too!
So, we finally left the doctor’s office today after 2 hours (again!) and headed to the special pharmacy to get the good bacteria for her tummy so the antibiotics don’t upset her tummy, then to our regular pharmacy to get her 2 prescriptions filled, then I had to get home to get my timesheet in for work (or I would have been in BIG trouble!!!) and then I had to do the nebulizer with her and now she is napping. It has been a really rough couple of days. I was expecting the news about her eyes, but not the stuff today. At least the eyes can be fixed with one relatively quick procedure – but this may be a precursor to something that may last her lifetime and I am so worried for her. I have been in and out of tears all morning. I nearly had a nervous breakdown in the middle of target waiting for her prescriptions. I know it will all be ok in the end and she’s a fighter and doesn’t really act like it is bothering her too much (at least not until you put that breathing mask on her), but I hate for her to be dealing with so much when she is so little. She’s just turned one and in just 2 days I’ve found out that she needs surgery on her eyes, her gums are so swollen she can barely eat, she has an ear infection, and now she needs a nebulizer to breathe and it may mean that she’ll have asthma. Oh, and if this stops working for her breathing, then that means that she has progressed into a worse stage and will need a more specialized doctor’s appt. with more specialized medicine. So we have to keep an eye on her to make sure that this is enough because it can get worse and at any point, she may not be able to breathe at all – and this is all from just a regular cold!
Ok, I think I have worked myself up enough and scared all of you enough – I just needed an opportunity to vent a bit. It has been a rough morning and the blog is my way of venting. I’ll try to have a happier post next time! Until then, please keep Olivia in your thoughts and prayers that all of this will pass in no time and that the breathing issues are short lived and will not result in future troubles. Thanks for listening!
Here's a picture of us giving her the nebulizer medicine right before our trip to Rhode Island:
1 comment:
Oh my goodness. I am so sorry you and Olivia had to go through all of that. Sounds like a pretty rough day. I hope your weekend was much better. I hope Olivia is doing better.
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