Pneumonia

While we were in Eau Claire, visiting for Father's Day, Olivia got a horrible cough.  At bedtime, she was coughing so hard that she threw up and nothing that we tried seemed to make her be able to stop coughing.  The next day she was running a fever, was congested, and hardly ate or drank anything.  We decided to take her in to Urgent Care at Sacred Heart, but when we arrived they were closed and our only option city-wide was to have her seen in the ER.  Fortunately our new insurance has outstanding coverage, so we decided to go forward with the visit.  A year ago, on our old insurance, I would've had to make the choice between my child's health and comfort and our finances.  It's not right that one's finances should have to be a factor in a healthcare decision, but so often they are....so much in our country is broken.  Anyway, the doctor was very kind and diagnosed her with a nasty upper respiratory infection and prescribed her steroids and an inhaler to help us get through the worst of it.

Over the course of the next week, she slept in bed with me every night.  She woke up a couple of times a night coughing - sometimes to the point of vomiting, but during the day her cough was improving.  Her biggest complaint was that her tummy hurt.  She told me that multiple times a day - sometimes not eating because of it.  Aside from that, she was acting normal, so I assumed her tummy was recovered from the harsh antibiotics she was on for an ear infection before the cough started.

Ten days after our ER visit, she was still complaining of a tummy ache, so I decided to take her in to see Dr. Slette.  Everything checked out normally upon exam, but because Dr. Slette really listens and cares, she decided to run some additional tests to see what was going on.  Poor little girl was at the clinic for 3 hours and a myriad of tests.  Our first stop was the lab for some bloodwork.  She was sooo brave and was all done crying by the time they got her bandaid on.  I was so proud of her.  The next stop was x-ray, where they did chest and abdominal films to ensure everything was looking normal.  Livi was amazing for this, too.  By the time we got back to Dr. Slette, she had the report that Livi's white blood cell count was higher than normal, which pointed to an infection.  Being she had no other symptoms, the doctor thought it was likely a UTI, but we needed a urine sample to confirm.  I was given the choice between having her catheterized and bringing her home and trying to collect a sample.  I absolutely chose the second option and spent the next three hours with her in the bathroom at home to try to get a sample.  At 9pm, I finally got the liquid gold and was feeling a huge sense of relief and accomplishment.  At the very least, I knew they wouldn't have to pass a catheter and I was so glad for that.

The next morning, the nurse called and said the radiologist had looked at the films and saw pneumonia.  Apparently, toddlers can occasionally present with abdominal pain as the only symptom.  Dr. Slette said this occurs because the pneumonia sits low in their lung, near their stomach and can cause pain and nausea.  The good news was that we knew what it was that was causing her to be so sick.  The bad news was that I spent 3 hours crouched in the bathroom trying to get a urine sample from my toddler for no reason....Oh, the joys of motherhood.

We are now about two weeks out; She has finished the antibiotic and is feeling much better.  It's just hard to believe that she ended up with pneumonia in June!  Let's hope the germs stay away for a good, long while!