What a week!!

We thought we were through the worst of Elizabeth's asthma episodes but it reared it's ugly head once again!! Two weeks before Labor Day we had several playdates at other friends homes and one at an indoor play place. Needless to say by the weekend both girls had started with a touch of runny noses and congestion. Both were acting completely normal (playing, eating, and sleeping), just had the congestion.

We had a fun day at Guadulupe State Park with friends,but by the afternoon Elizabeth was coughing quite a bit and the wheezing started. It had only been a couple weeks since her last episode (not severe), but we did start her treatments that night. Although I knew we were running low on her xopenex, I had no doubt she could make to Sunday morning when I could get a refill on it.

 WOW, WAS I WRONG!!!
She woke up needing her treatments at 1130, 1, 145, and 3am. Her 1am dose was a double dose that didn't seem to break up the wheezing and she was back to coughing within 30minutes!! She was retracting in her chest AND neck as well. She was just miserable! I felt horrible. I had been sleeping all night next to her on the floor and by the time 3am rolled around, I was running out of medicine. At that point, I had to call in reinforcements. I called my parents to see if they had any albuterol to get us through until the next day and make sure there wasn't something else I should be doing. My poor little munchkin had a heart rate hovering in the 160's-180's for HOURS!!! She was just so uncomfortable. I headed out around 330am to go pick up the little bit of medicine that my mom had and was actually able to pick up a full refill from the 24 hr pharmacy on Thousand Oaks. The pharmist there was so wonderful, and fast!! Much different experince than our pharamacies here in stone oak (everyone is quite rude around here)!
After an extremely long night that didn't seem to be getting any better (especially after so many treatments), I went ahead and took her into the ER at NC Baptist. We were only one of three kids there so we were triaged pretty quickly. I do like how they separate the adults and children at NC. It does seem to make it a little less crazy.
Elizabeth was pretty much having panic attacks when ANYONE would come near her :( Didn't make things very easy but after a long morning of waiting  (multiple ambulances arrived while we were there) our little girl was finally coming back to us. She slept on me in a dark room for about 2 hours. She had an oral steroid and AN HOUR AND HALF on the nebulizer with albuterol (3x normal dose) and atravant (sp?). An hour into her meds she finally sat up and smiled! Best moment of the day! Now we were reading books, and watching cartoons on the TV. It was AMAZING the difference that all those meds made. Any one who knows me knows that we really don't take meds unless it's absolutely needed and in this case it was ABSOLUTELY needed!! We were finally discharged and over the next week she had a daily dose of oral steroid and her treatments every 4-6 hours. Her activity was very limited (which as she started feeling better was very hard to control) But even she knew that when she started running around she didn't feel good. "Need medicine mommy"
Elizabeth was getting a lot of attention, especially those first few days, that Olivia started feeling a little left. By day 3 with Elizabeth and all her medicine, Liv started "coughing" asking for medicine! silly girl! So when Elizabeth was done with her treatment I would go ahead and let Liv put the mask on her face for a few minutes with just air. Everyone was happy! :)

Hope that we don't have another episode like this any time soon. It sure wasn't fun for anyone, especially Miss Elizabeth!

At the hospital, her glowing toe finally made her smile

Finally sitting up on her own and talking to the nurses that came in.

Praying we don't have anymore weeks like this one!