Its been a long two days here in the Carroll household. Yesterday I picked Brianna up from daycare and they told me that she was pretty congested. No biggie, this is pretty commonplace for us these days. As I picked her up and took her out to the car, I listened to her wheeze and try to catch her breath. Now, I'm not one to scare easily or overreact, normally when she wheezes we give her some nebulizer treatments and if they don't work we take her to the doctor. This time was a little different. I drove home crying because she sounded so terrible. She couldn't even really cry because she couldn't catch her breath enough to let out a good wail. I immediately called the doctor and got their only available time of 8:10 when we got home, great...I had over 2 hours to wait until she could be seen by a doctor, so I gave her a nebulizer treatment and waited for the nurse to call. She called and since Brianna wasn't much better after the treatment she told me to bring her in right away. Of course the only office open at that time is the one that is 30 minutes away. We got to the doctors office and they proceeded to give her another treatment, and a prescription for an oral steroid. She was acting much more like herself, but was still wheezing. She was scheduled for her year checkup for the next night (tonight) so I asked if I should even bring her in and the doctor said it wouldn't be a bad idea so they could recheck her breathing, but that we'd have to bring her back in another time to get her shot. Anyone that has children that have had to take these steroids will tell you that they make kids (and really anyone) bounce off the walls. Besides this wall bouncing steroid, we also had to get up every 4 hours to give Brianna another treatment.
So that brings us to today. I decided that it was probably best for Brianna if she didn't go to daycare today, so I brought her to work with me. She was one cranky little girl for the majority of the day. She didn't want to sleep (I think mostly because she couldn't) and was very much not her normal happy-go-lucky self. So after work I took her to her one year checkup, at which they do a test to make sure the child is getting enough iron in their diet. Its a simple finger prick, no biggie, actually Brianna didn't even make a sound. (OH and she weighs 21lbs 6oz for anyone keeping track...I didn't get her length, I was quite distracted, all I know is that she is in the 50th percentile for height, weight, and head size). So the nurse comes back after the finger prick and says that the quick test came back with low iron, so she needed to make sure that it wasn't a fluke. She got more blood from the same finger (no prick this time) and then the Dr. came in and said that Brianna was quite anemic. Fantastic! She's been on the same formula with iron since she was born and has only since yesterday had anything but formula and some occasional juice. So the Dr. tells me they need to do a more extensive blood test because depending on what was going on Brianna may need to be on a prescription iron supplement. Wonderful! Then I mentioned to the doctor how strange it was that her episode yesterday came on so fast, cause usually its days before we need to bring her to the doctor (not that we ignore her symptoms, but we try to treat her wheezing before it gets too bad and when it seems as if what we're doing isn't working, we take her to the doctor). And the doctor asked if she ate anything differently, and I told her the only thing that was different was that Brianna had milk for the first time yesterday, so now they are sending her to an allergist. The doctor thought that it probably wasn't the milk, but just to be on the safe side she needed to get tested. After all this I take Brianna to the lab to have the blood drawn, cause the doctor wants to get the results back asap. Of course Brianna has inherited my veins and they couldn't get any blood from her. The lady stuck her once and was trying to find the vein, and my heart broke, and I wished that I could trade places with my baby girl. (And for anyone that knows me, you know how much I love having blood taken, it always ends up in at least 2 sticks, and just for an example to get my IV going when I had Brianna, it took over 1 hour, 2 different nurses and 5...yes 5 sticks, plus the next day I looked like someone beat the crap out of me.) But I would have traded places with her in a heartbeat. Needless to say we have to take her back tomorrow to have blood drawn. My poor baby. She is such a trooper, in her short little year of life she's had ear infections twice, has had nebulizer treatments of at least 1 kind of medication (2 when she's wheezing) at least once everyday for probably the last 6 months, has had more steroids in her than Barry Bonds :) But still keeps smiling. She's my hero, when I grow up I want to be just like her. I know that this is nothing compared to what some parents go through with their children, and they have my utmost admiration and respect. I know we all wish we could take away our children's pain...The thing that sucks about being a parent is...that we can't.
OK, enough rambling, I will try to post more about last weekend's fun filled family events, but I'm entirely too tired tonight. I also have pictures (mostly of Brianna) that I hope to have posted before we leave for IA on Thursday night.
If I don't...stay tuned next week for accounts and pictures of Friday's Canoe-A-Palooza debauchery! :)
Our love to you all, stay safe and healthy!
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