More sickies: RSV

Ellowyn has been sick since December 19th.  Thankfully she is finally really starting to get better.  She had RSV, which she shared with all the rest of the family (and then some).  But the problem was that it didn't stop there.  The disease progressed with Ellowyn and became bronchiolitis, which then developed into an ear infection.  For the whole thing to run its course, it has taken 17 days.

The bronchiolitis was by far the worst part.  The RSV was like a bad cold, the ear infection we knew to watch for so was caught early, but the bronchiolitis... she had it bad.  Wheezing cough, fatigue, struggling for breath, gasping, rapid breathing, blue lips... the works.  Hospitalization was considered multiple times (Brian somehow managed to talk me out of it, instead we had multiple emergency visits to the after hours clinic).  She was on breathing treatments every 4 hours for 6 days.  And those were not fun.  Sometimes she was too exhausted to fight it and then she'd just fall asleep and it was kind of nice.  But other times (especially once she started feeling better) she struggled and cried for the whole 15 minutes that it took to hold the mask over her face and administer the vasodilator.  I went to bed a couple nights scared to leave Ellowyn alone in her crib for fear that one time when she stopped breathing in her sleep (which she did regularly), she would fail to wake herself, and I would walk in to a dead baby in the morning.  It was terrifying.  I can say all this now because it is over.  At the time, I couldn't say how scared I was because of that superstition that if you say something then it will become true.

Ellowyn was also on a nursing strike.  That's typical for her when she gets sick, but this strike was the longest yet: 14 days.  Thankfully she's back to nursing today and seems to be making up for lost time.  I freely admit that prolactin withdrawal may have contributed to my state of total freak-outedness during this time.

Anyway, because everyone was sick, we pretty much missed Christmas and New Year's.  This holiday season was a bust.  Thankfully, we have a make-up Christmas celebration with my parents and sister coming up this weekend, so we are pretending that Christmas is coming 2 weeks late.  As such, I will have a Christmas post later, after we have had a chance to actually celebrate.