A was admitted into the hospital yesterday due to a severe case of RSV. K had a cold from preschool that she brought home and spread to A. K's symptoms were a runny nose and a bit of a cough. In A, it turned into RSV. RSV is short for Respiratory Syncytial Virus. In older kids and adults it appears as a common cold. In infants under 6 months (A is only 2 1/2 weeks!!) it causes the airways to become inflamed and makes it very difficult to get oxygen out to the body. Her lungs are basically physiologically acting like an asthmatics' lungs.
It all started Sunday night with a little cough. I called the peds office and I was told that as long as she wasn't running a fever and was eating well, not to be too bothered. Well by Wednesday/Thursday her cough was really bothering her, turning her face colors and she was not acting herself. That's when I decided that whether or not she had a fever, she was going into the doctor.
There they diagnosed RSV and sent us to the ER. In the ER her oxygen levels were quite low and she was laboring to breathe. We were told that the oxygen levels were lower than if an adult had bad case of pneumonia. They monitored her breathing, removed mucus several times from her nose and gave her breathing treatments at which point they made the decision to admit her into the pediatric unit.
We will be here through Saturday or Sunday depending on how she continues to respond to treatments. So far she has responded positively to the nebulizer treatments and they took her off the oxygen at noon. She needs to pick up on her eating and diapers as well as maintain her oxygen levels before they will discharge us. I'm hoping this happens tomorrow. Although, we don't' want to rush it and would rather stay here longer and insure that we won't have to return anytime soon.
Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers!
