Kian's 6 week birthday brought with it a milestone of my own - the postpartum doctor visit. I dreaded this all week... well, longer than that really. Not only is the visit itself generally unpleasant, but it's a 40-50 minute drive. Kian was still very fussy and was only going about 2 hours max between feedings. If you do the math you'll see there was no way for me to get out and back without a feeding, and I haven't fed him in public yet. I'm not so good with the receiving blanket covering method, and the whole idea sort of freaked me out.
I managed to get myself and Kian and all our junk ready in a timely manner, and off I drove. I'm so glad I have a mirror in the backseat so I can watch him, and that he's generally very happy in the car. I got there and signed in and got all situated, when the receptionist called me up. Did I know the appointment was with Dr P? Um... no. I've never seen him before. That's just incredibly akward, but I'm all the way up here so I guess I'll see him *shudder*. At that point she informs me that they don't see each other's patients and I'm going to have to reschedule. She's sorry, she knows it's hot outside. I couldn't resist a little snipey "Hot outside? Yeah, and I live 45 minutes away, with a sick 6 week old. But I don't have a choice do I?" No I do not. So I get to pack everything BACK up and head home with a new appointment scheduled for Monday. Kian was having none of this back in his carseat stuff though, and he had a total meltdown. I called Brian to fume about the appointment mixup, and after a few minutes of Kian screaming I decided to stop somewhere and walk him around. I was driving past Michael's (the craft store), so I pulled in there. I picked him up out of the carseat, and we wandered around looking at all the fun colors until he fell asleep. Everyone we passed stopped me to tell me how precious and cute he is. I guess it's not just me then, since they could have just kept walking! Two people asked me if he was mine in this weird tone, too. The first time I was really put off and a little defensive - what a strange question! Then they asked how old he was... 6 weeks. Then came the punchline. No way! You look FANTASTIC! Oh. Gee. Thanks. *blush* Once he was quieted down we made it the rest of the way home just fine. Phew.
Friday he was still wheezing occasionally, coughing some, and sounding congested off and on so I called around 8 to schedule an appointment. They gave me one for 10:20 which I blithely accepted. And then I started counting. Two feedings, a shower, getting myself dressed and hair fixed and makeup, and Kian changed and dressed, and the dogs fed and taken care of, and the car packed... and did I mention two feedings? Plus the drive there. Oh, crap. I somehow managed to arrive only 5 minutes late in spite of all this, and Brian arrived pretty much just as I did.
We got in promptly as usual and answered all the same questions we always do. When the doc himself came in he did his usual exam and in the end seemed concerned about the high rate of Kian's breathing, a hint of a wheeze on exhalation and the fact that his little chest was pulling in with his breaths, especially when he was a little worked up. He had mentioned trying Albuterol at our last visit, and this time he decided he did indeed want to try it out on him. This is an inhaled drug, and you use a nebulizer to turn it into a fine mist that is pumped through a mask and then breathed in. It is a broncho-dialator that they use commonly for asthma, so I've heard of it before and felt OK about trying it. The doctor was mainly concerned that it might not be very effective, as it sometimes doesn't work well for babies as young as Kian. The tech brought in a nebulizer and the medication and we held the mask over his nose and mouth while he breathed it in. Within minutes he seemed to be breathing a lot easier and the retractions were gone, so the doc decided to prescribe it for us to give at home. The main side effect we noticed right away is that it made him really jittery. His little legs would just shake and tremble uncontrollably. The doc assured us that it is normal as the drug is almost like adrenaline, and nothing to worry about. I asked him what else to watch out for and he said that in general he didn't want his resp rate to get much higher. It was around 70-75 and he said if it hit 90 we needed to take him in the ER. Yikes.
We went to the pharmacy to get the albuterol, which we were to give 3 times a day. For that day we were told to give a dose at 4pm and one at 10pm. Then I had to go into town to get the nebulizer itself. The cool thing about that is that TriCare actually just pays for the machine, so rather than renting and returning it we actually purchased it. Kian was pretty done with being in his carseat by this time, so when I drove by Valley Animal Hospital (where I worked until I got pregnant), I decided to swing by and introduce the little guy around. After a visit and a diaper change we headed home and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. The 4 o'clock dose of albuterol went just fine.
That night Kian had a bath and it was a while until his next feeding, so we did his final treatment for the night. He was pretty awake but so was Brian, so I went to sleep and handed him over to his dad. Within a half hour Brian woke me up, really concerned because he was breathing super fast. At first I thought he might just be worked up and fussy because he was hungry so I tried to feed him. He couldn't eat, he was just panting frantically and trying to eat made him splutter and scream. I tried to quiet him and counted his resp rate - well over 100, maybe even 120. He was gasping and occasionally grunting and seemed really scared... I was quickly getting pretty scared myself. It was a hard situation though. Did the albuterol cause it? If so we shouldn't give him any more. Was the albuterol helping? If so it might get even worse when it wore off. In the end we called the triage line. It was a while before we got a call back (as usual), and the nurse asked a bunch of questions and ended up listening to him breathe over the phone. Trying to keep me calm in the process, she told me he needed to go to the ER and that we needed to call 911. That way if he got worse he'd be in an ambulance with oxygen.
I tried my best not to panic, told Brian what she said and made the call. I've never actually called 911 before, and I really hope I never have to again. The fire department arrived within a few minutes and started assessing him. They recommended that we go in an ambulance, so they called one in. In the meantime Kian was slowly improving, and the whole time he never turned blue or anything, so by the time the ambulance arrived I was feeling much better. Still, we decided it was best for a doctor to look at him, and I knew I'd be up all night watching him otherwise, so off we went. I rode with Kian and Brian drove behind us. The baby fell asleep in his car seat, and never moved through the whole bouncy ride to the hospital.
By the time we got there he was fine again, leaving me to surmise it was a reaction to the Albuterol. This entry is already pretty long, so suffice it to say we were at the ER until 5:30am. They took x-rays and monitored him and came to the same conclusion I did. It was stressful and irritating in a lot of ways, and I couldn't get any sleep because they didn't have a bassinet or anywhere for me to put him down. Brian caught a few hours of dozing off and on in the bed around 3 or so, but it was far from pleasant for any of us. Kian, being held, slept for 5 hours straight. Go figure. We were released with instructions to discontinue the albuterol and bring him back if we were concerned.
The most annoying part of the experience was the way everyone condescendingly asked me if he is my first baby, and basically implied that I freaked out for no reason. I kept having to explain that I know they breathe through their nose, that I know how to count resperation rate, that I KNOW he seems fine now, but a few hours ago he COULD NOT BREATHE. Grrr. As if I wanted to spend all night in that awful room for no reason. I suppose all is well that ends well though. Thank goodness he is OK.
Oh, also, he weighed in at 10 pounds 0.3 ounces today. What a big boy!
We got in promptly as usual and answered all the same questions we always do. When the doc himself came in he did his usual exam and in the end seemed concerned about the high rate of Kian's breathing, a hint of a wheeze on exhalation and the fact that his little chest was pulling in with his breaths, especially when he was a little worked up. He had mentioned trying Albuterol at our last visit, and this time he decided he did indeed want to try it out on him. This is an inhaled drug, and you use a nebulizer to turn it into a fine mist that is pumped through a mask and then breathed in. It is a broncho-dialator that they use commonly for asthma, so I've heard of it before and felt OK about trying it. The doctor was mainly concerned that it might not be very effective, as it sometimes doesn't work well for babies as young as Kian. The tech brought in a nebulizer and the medication and we held the mask over his nose and mouth while he breathed it in. Within minutes he seemed to be breathing a lot easier and the retractions were gone, so the doc decided to prescribe it for us to give at home. The main side effect we noticed right away is that it made him really jittery. His little legs would just shake and tremble uncontrollably. The doc assured us that it is normal as the drug is almost like adrenaline, and nothing to worry about. I asked him what else to watch out for and he said that in general he didn't want his resp rate to get much higher. It was around 70-75 and he said if it hit 90 we needed to take him in the ER. Yikes.
We went to the pharmacy to get the albuterol, which we were to give 3 times a day. For that day we were told to give a dose at 4pm and one at 10pm. Then I had to go into town to get the nebulizer itself. The cool thing about that is that TriCare actually just pays for the machine, so rather than renting and returning it we actually purchased it. Kian was pretty done with being in his carseat by this time, so when I drove by Valley Animal Hospital (where I worked until I got pregnant), I decided to swing by and introduce the little guy around. After a visit and a diaper change we headed home and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. The 4 o'clock dose of albuterol went just fine.
That night Kian had a bath and it was a while until his next feeding, so we did his final treatment for the night. He was pretty awake but so was Brian, so I went to sleep and handed him over to his dad. Within a half hour Brian woke me up, really concerned because he was breathing super fast. At first I thought he might just be worked up and fussy because he was hungry so I tried to feed him. He couldn't eat, he was just panting frantically and trying to eat made him splutter and scream. I tried to quiet him and counted his resp rate - well over 100, maybe even 120. He was gasping and occasionally grunting and seemed really scared... I was quickly getting pretty scared myself. It was a hard situation though. Did the albuterol cause it? If so we shouldn't give him any more. Was the albuterol helping? If so it might get even worse when it wore off. In the end we called the triage line. It was a while before we got a call back (as usual), and the nurse asked a bunch of questions and ended up listening to him breathe over the phone. Trying to keep me calm in the process, she told me he needed to go to the ER and that we needed to call 911. That way if he got worse he'd be in an ambulance with oxygen.
I tried my best not to panic, told Brian what she said and made the call. I've never actually called 911 before, and I really hope I never have to again. The fire department arrived within a few minutes and started assessing him. They recommended that we go in an ambulance, so they called one in. In the meantime Kian was slowly improving, and the whole time he never turned blue or anything, so by the time the ambulance arrived I was feeling much better. Still, we decided it was best for a doctor to look at him, and I knew I'd be up all night watching him otherwise, so off we went. I rode with Kian and Brian drove behind us. The baby fell asleep in his car seat, and never moved through the whole bouncy ride to the hospital.
By the time we got there he was fine again, leaving me to surmise it was a reaction to the Albuterol. This entry is already pretty long, so suffice it to say we were at the ER until 5:30am. They took x-rays and monitored him and came to the same conclusion I did. It was stressful and irritating in a lot of ways, and I couldn't get any sleep because they didn't have a bassinet or anywhere for me to put him down. Brian caught a few hours of dozing off and on in the bed around 3 or so, but it was far from pleasant for any of us. Kian, being held, slept for 5 hours straight. Go figure. We were released with instructions to discontinue the albuterol and bring him back if we were concerned.
The most annoying part of the experience was the way everyone condescendingly asked me if he is my first baby, and basically implied that I freaked out for no reason. I kept having to explain that I know they breathe through their nose, that I know how to count resperation rate, that I KNOW he seems fine now, but a few hours ago he COULD NOT BREATHE. Grrr. As if I wanted to spend all night in that awful room for no reason. I suppose all is well that ends well though. Thank goodness he is OK.
Oh, also, he weighed in at 10 pounds 0.3 ounces today. What a big boy!
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