A is for Asthma...

i guess from the title of this post you know that my motherly 'fear'o'meter' was put to the test this past week... my middle child Mia was formerly diagnosed with asthma before her 2nd birthday when she was hospitalised with an acute attack brought on by a chemical nit treatment. ever since then we have been keeping her out of the hospital (although we have had some short stays at the emergency room have over the past 4 years) by being vigilant with her action plan which involves daily preventer, Ventolin when needed and steroids as a last resort. we have done quite well because i am an asthmatic myself and i know what to look for and how to manage her signs. there are the odd times when no matter what i do we have to resort to the last step of the action plan and go to the hospital if she isn't lasting more than 2 hours on the Ventolin.

on Tuesday night at 11:30 pm Mia and i headed into the hospital only to be sent home at 4:30am and told to keep giving her Ventolin when needed. i wish i had insisted on staying because by a few hours later my heart was in my mouth as i watched my girl struggling for air even though she was on the nebuliser...crying and scratching at her throat saying she couldn't breathe. we raced to the local doctor who checked her oxygen levels which were below 90% and were told to go straight back to the hospital. a few hours later they were prepping her to go into ICU!

luckily the oxygen, Ventolin and steroids kicked in and she was admitted to the ward rather than ICU. a chest xray ruled out pneumonia and a snot test came back with no traces of anything tested for. at this stage they suspect she has picked up a virus and unfortunately as an asthmatic she has no chance of fighting it.

it is amazing how much Ventolin a small body can take on average she would have received 6puffs every hour for 2 days then 6 puffs every 2 hours for the next day. once she was able to go for more than 3 hours without needing Ventolin we were able to go home.

while we were in the emergency room we were lucky enough to have these special doctors visit...

Dr kerfuffle and

Dr redee came and entertained Mia. they were very funny and an absolute blessing at such a scary time.

this sort of scare makes you count your blessings...we only had 2 nights of stress and no sleep, others around us had been there for a couple of weeks without knowing what was wrong. the nurses and doctors could not have been faulted (except the first two that sent me home) and they made my Mia feel special and safe. i am glad that it is all over for this time and hope that it is another 2 years before the next stay (we had a short stay in 08).

you really don't understand the depth of your love for your child until their life is threatened, it could have been worse but even that moment when she was struggling for breath made me chill down to my bones.

off to catch up on some 'me time' while i can.

xxrosey