Category Archives: Health Stuff

overreaction

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Catie’s had a cold since our camping trip last weekend. At first it was just an endlessly drippy nose, but yesterday her asthma started to flare up. I didn’t think too much of it right away, because it didn’t seem that bad. When she had an asthma crisis back in December, I knew something was wrong because she was lethargic and obviously miserable. She would only moan and cry when she woke up, then go back to sleep. But with this current cold, she’s generally been pretty cheerful and acting like her normal self. I mean, yes, she’s been wheezing a little bit off & on, but she’s also singing, laughing, and narrating little stories that her toys act out. So we were giving her albuterol & pulmicort in the nebulizer – the way we normally treat her asthma – but I wasn’t that worried.

This morning, Dave got up with Catie to let me sleep in a little longer. (Love it when he does that.) A while later, he brought her upstairs to bed, and she snuggled in next to me. I was spooning her with my hand on her chest, and I could feel how rapid her breathing was, and how fast her heart was pounding. I told Dave we needed to give her some albuterol, and he said he had just done it a few minutes ago. I promptly freaked out and called the pediatrician. They told us to come straight in, which we did.

I think the words “asthma attack” have some sort of magical power on pediatricians. They were waiting for us when we got there, and brought us straight back to a room. The doctor came in immediately. They tried to get a pulse ox on Catie’s finger, but she wasn’t having it (oh, the shrieking), and they couldn’t get an accurate reading from her big toe. We finally got her to calm down enough that the doctor could listen to her chest with the stethoscope.

Not our usual pediatrician: Um, her lungs are clear.
Me: But she’s been wheezing since yesterday!
NOOP: When was her last albuterol treatment?
Me: About 45 minutes ago.
NOOP: Well, it’s clearly working because she sounds fine now.
Me: But she’s breathing so fast! And her heart is pounding!
NOOP: Well, albuterol does accelerate the heart rate…
Me: Um… it does? [Feel REALLY stupid for not knowing that.]
NOOP: Her airways are definitely open, she’s not in respiratory distress at all. I think the worst of the cold has probably passed, so just keep doing what you’re doing with the nebulizer and you should be able to wean her off the albuterol by Friday.
Me: Oh. OK.
~Fin~

I’ll be honest, I think part of the reason why I reacted so strongly was because I was thinking about Maddie. When I was lying in bed with Catie and I felt how fast and hard she was breathing, it scared the wits out of me. Before two weeks ago, it never once entered my mind that a child could ever just stop breathing.

I know that Maddie is an exceptionally rare case, I know the odds of anything like that happening to Catie are very remote. And yes, of course it has always been frightening to hear my little girl struggling to breathe, and it always will be. I just don’t know if or when this particular type of intense fear-that-the-worst-could-happen will subside. Am I overreacting? Very likely. But how can I not, when we’ve seen proof that sometimes the worst does happen, for no damn reason?

Seriously, how do you not overreact?

fill my eyes with that double vision

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I mentioned here a while ago that I was having problems with my eyesight, which I’d noticed when I was trying to read. It isn’t so much a problem when I’m on the computer, but books, the iPhone, and the Kindle all made my right eye hurt and go blurry. I knew I was way overdue for an eye checkup (my last one was sometime in 2003, I think), so I made appointment for today, since Catie is in daycare and I wouldn’t have to bring her with me.

Also, Dave’s glasses broke a while ago, so he needed some new ones. Ok then, appointments for two! Not quite a date night, but any outing without the kid counts, right?

As I was kind of expecting, the doctor told me I was farsighted right away. Then she started doing that, “which is better, number 1 or number 2?” thing with the different lenses. And while my left eye is basically fine, no matter what she did with the lenses on my right eye, I was pretty much blind. Huh. It was a little disconcerting. I kept waiting for the big, “hey, I can see!” epiphany, but it never happened.

She did some more tests, and concluded that I have a lazy eye. It’s not severe, she said people wouldn’t notice it when they’re making eye contact with me – unlike a guy I once went on a blind date with, who had a lazy eye so bad that he made me horribly self-conscious that there was something wrong with my ear. One eye made perfect eye contact, the other seemed to be focusing on the side of my head. It was freaky.

Also, my dad has glaucoma, and she’s a little worried that I might be showing early signs of developing it too. So I’m going back next week for some test that will involve a plastic thing on the surface of my eyeball and oh my god, I think I’m going to have to get my regular doctor to call in some Valium for me beforehand.

In the meantime, I now have glasses. Or at least, I’ll have them in 7 to 10 business days.

I have glasses

Certainly not the greatest picture of me, but they’re pretty cute, right? They’re red. I like them.

Dave has glasses too

Dave got glasses too. They look a lot like his old ones, I think it’s a good look for him.

P.S. Apologies if the title of this post put a Foreigner song in your head. It seemed fitting.

because apparently if the other mommybloggers jumped off a bridge, I would too

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I’m having one of these weeks where there’s a bunch of stuff sort of swirling around in my head that I’m having a hard time sorting out. I can’t even write it out of my system, because I’m feeling all scatter-brained and sort of like I have ADD (which is odd, because that’s usually Dave’s department). So instead, I’m going to talk about something fun and superficial.

Kristen over at Motherhood Uncensored has started a challenge for other bloggers to try to get in shape along with her own journey, and she started a whole separate blog to talk about it. Most of them are doing the 30-Day Shred, which I tried to do and it totally screwed up my knees. (Which is not Jillian Michaels’ fault at all. I have bad knees. It runs in my family.)

But this month, they’re mixing it up with the two different trainers from the Biggest Loser, so there’s Team Jillian (the people doing the 30-Day Shred) and Team Bob. I found out that Bob has a DVD called “Weight Loss Yoga,” which sounded ideal for me. I love yoga, I want to lose weight, and yoga shouldn’t mess up my knees. So I ordered the DVD from Amazon and signed myself up for Team Bob.

I took “before” pictures, which I will not be posting until I have cute “after” pictures because OMG, I have a huge ass. (Sorry, Catie. That runs in the family too.) I mean, I knew I had a big butt, but seeing the profile photo of me wearing yoga pants? Good heavens. Scary.

Today was the first day, and it seems to be a really good workout. Much harder than your average yoga routine, and I’m pretty sure that I’m going to be very, very sore later. My only complaint is that the music is awful. It sounds like a bad video game soundtrack; seriously, it’s a little “Legend of Zelda”-ish. So I’m going to have to make an iTunes playlist and play it along with the DVD so I don’t go insane.

Other than that, though, I’m pretty excited. It should be a lot of fun, and maybe the yoga will be good for helping me clear my head of all this randomness.

the ER, revisited (literally)

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So, my pledge to stay out of hospitals in 2009? Not going so well. It’s March and I’ve already ended up in the ER twice. Actually, twice just in the month of March alone. Well, not me, personally, but I keep ending up there with other people.

Today started off pretty normal and ho-hum. Mags (my mother-in-law) and I were talking about what to make for dinner. She makes the most amazing shepherd’s pie in the world and she hadn’t made it since she got here, so that sounded pretty good. I had most of the supplies, but we were missing a few key ingredients, so she and I loaded up Catie and set off for the grocery store.

We were about 3/4 of the way done with the shopping, when Catie started to get irritable, so we headed to the bakery to get her a cookie bribe. While we were there, we checked out the deli to get ourselves some lunch. Catie wolfed down her cookie and ran back to the bakery section to get another one. I told her no, but she wouldn’t come back over to us, so Mags went to get her. She picked Catie up and started walking toward me and the cart. Catie squirmed, and it was enough to throw Mags off balance and make her fall. She was so panicked about protecting Catie from hitting the floor that she basically twisted Catie out of the way and hit the floor full force with her forehead. Ouch.

The deli and bakery ladies swarmed around us. They got her some ice for her head, put a huge stuffed Easter bunny under her head as a pillow, and they called 911. The store manager showed up and made sure I had her card and she had all of our contact info. I’m sure she’s terrified that we’re going to sue. I called Dave, who showed up a minute or two before the EMTs. The EMTs took her out to the ambulance to examine her, and decided that she was most likely ok to go home. Fine, then.

Only, not so much. On the drive home (barely over a mile), Mags said she was feeling dizzy and nauseous. As soon as we stopped, she got out of the car and threw up in the driveway. I called 911, and the exact same paramedics arrived a few minutes later. This time, they took us to the hospital. Dave has a huge work project due, so we decided that he’d stay home with Catie (who was in dire need of lunch and a nap), and I’d go with Mags to the hospital.

A couple of hours and a CAT scan later, it was determined that she’s basically fine, although probably has a mild concussion. They gave her some anti-nausea medication (since she was still a little bit sick from the dizziness), and sent us home.

Mags was supposed to fly home tomorrow, but we all agree that’s probably not the best idea with a concussion. She just called the airline and changed her ticket for next Wednesday, so that’s good. And I don’t think I’m going to ask her to make shepherd’s pie tonight. Maybe some other time.

Side note to God: can we please now be done with hospitals for the year? Pretty please?

the no-fun snow day

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Like most of the east coast, we got a pretty decent amount of snow on Sunday night. I’m not sure exactly how much we got in our little section of North Carolina, I heard it was around two to four inches. It was enough for all of the schools to close down, anyway.

My plan for Monday consisted of, well, nothing. I wanted to get a couple of freelance articles written, maybe tidy up the house a little and make dinner, but that was about it. No major plans on the agenda. I was thinking how fun it was going to be to get more pictures of Catie frolicking in the snow like we did on our last snow day. As is usually the case, life had other plans.

If you follow me on Twitter, you already know this, but on Monday morning, we ended up in the emergency room. Dave started having chest pains, his face turned all red, and it seemed like he was on the verge of hyperventilating. I’ve never seen him have any sort of episode like this, but it scared the living hell out of me, so we immediately set off for the ER. I paused for about 90 seconds to drop Catie off with our next-door neighbor, but that was the only thing that slowed me down. (And seriously, our neighbors? LOVE. SO. MUCH.)

Fortunately, if you find yourself at the admitting desk of an ER, and you use the words “chest” and “pain,” they tend to get you to a room tout de suite. They ran some tests on Dave: EKG, chest x-ray, bloodwork. And of course, as with all hospital visits, there was a whole lot of sitting and waiting. So much waiting.

Everything came back normal, so we don’t really know what happened. Panic attack? Too much stress and caffeine? Weird reaction to some new medication? No idea. They sent him home with a few Valium and an order to follow up with his regular doctor for more tests. Which I fully intend to make him do, because Dave’s granddad died when he was 50, and I’m terrified of something like that happening to him. Dave keeps reassuring me that his granddad had some sort of heart defect, plus he ate bacon and fried bread (i.e., white bread that’s been deep fried in bacon fat) for breakfast every morning, but still. I don’t eff around when one of his symptoms includes chest pains.

So yeah, it was basically a horrible, terrifying experience, and it seems that we have already broken my “no hospitals in 2009” goal, but at least Dave seems to be ok now, which I’m thankful for. And Catie had a great time at the neighbors’ house. When I went to pick her up, Meredith (the mom-next-door) was feeding about 8 of the neighborhood kids lunch, and Catie was sitting at the dining table with the big kids, chowing down on chicken nuggets and apple slices. Kind of hilarious to see my relatively tiny girl sitting with all of these other kids who are about 7-10 years old.

That night, I was in the kitchen making dinner. Dave came over to give me a kiss.
Him: “Thanks for being such a good wife today.”
Me: “That’s ok, thanks for not dropping dead.”
Him: “You’re welcome! Anytime.”

We joke, because sometimes that’s the only way we know how to cope with these really scary things.

health update

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Dave and I are slowly recovering from our colds, but as of yesterday, Catie has it too. So far her only symptom is a seriously gross runny nose, which has been keeping her from sleeping comfortably. But her energy level is about the same as usual, which is good. I’ve basically resigned myself to not having a pillow to myself until she’s over her cold. When she’s sick, she wants to sleep in our bed, and she wants to be as close to me as possible. Which is sweet, until my arm falls asleep or I get a crick in my neck.

Catie is getting her steroid (Pulmicort) via the nebulizer twice a day, and so far this cold hasn’t caused any asthma flare-ups. I hope that it’ll stay that way, although I’m worried that this is just the beginning and it’s going to get a lot worse. (I’m basing that on the symptoms that Dave & I have had so far.) Let’s hope I’m wrong, and that her version of this cold is much milder than ours.

playdates and sickies

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I’m not sure what happened to my blog yesterday, but between two online chats with tech support and some major repairs, apparently all is well now. Annoying, but not fatal. Meh.

Yesterday, Catie and I went to Marbles Kids’ Museum, which is always fun. The problem is that downtown Raleigh is quite a hike from us, and with Catie’s tendency to get carsick… well. It wasn’t that bad, I had a change of clothes with us, and she seemed to feel a lot better after she barfed, so I just got her cleaned up and sent her off to play. She had a blast.

happy girl on her horsey

I love this b/c even though she's looking down, you can tell how happy she is

Or rather, they had fun until my friend Kimberly’s mother-in-law tried to get a picture with both Morgan (Kimberly’s daughter) and Catie at the same time. Catie had been so caught up with all of the toys and activities that she hadn’t noticed Morgan’s grandma up until the moment she grabbed her. And, um, Catie was not having it.

Morgan's grandma came over for a group pic. Catie was NOT having it.

I know it’s sick and evil of me, but that picture cracks me up. Besides, a few minutes later, all was well with the world.

playing happily again, after the whole "someone else's grandma hugged me" incident

On our way home from Marbles, I noticed that my throat felt a little scratchy. Dave’s been sick for the past few days, so I worried that I was coming down with it. As soon as we got home, I downed some Zicam and an Emergen-C to try to fight it off. I was supposed to play bunco with some of the neighborhood ladies last night, but I canceled on them since I wasn’t feeling great, plus Dave was miserable and Catie had an asthma attack that afternoon (nothing major, she’d just been running around outside in the cold weather too much), so I was worried about leaving them.

I was in bed by 9:30, and woke up this morning to realize that yes, I have indeed caught the plague. Yuck. I don’t mind suffering through it myself, I’m just worried that Catie will catch it. And since her colds tend to lead to major asthma issues and worse (i.e., hospital visits), I’m doing everything I can to keep her safe. Even trying to limit kisses, which is basically impossible. Cross your fingers that Dave and I keep the germs to ourselves. I’d like for 2009 to be free of trips to the pediatric ER, if at all possible.