ER visit

We had our first emergency room visit last month. I keep meaning to write about it and forgetting. Estella got a case of croup. I thought my boys had had croup before, but now that I have REALLY seen croup I know I was mistaken. Wow...croup is scary!

She started out in the afternoon with a few barking coughs, but nothing too bad. She didn't have any congestion, stuffiness, or runny nose. As soon as the evening came around, she started wheezing. We put her to bed with a humidifier next to her bed, but it didn't seem to help at all. She was tossing and turning and very restless until we went to sleep around 10:30. After we went to sleep, she came in our room over and over and over. Each time she came in it seemed that the wheezing was worse. Finally around 4:00 it was getting scary. It really seemed like she wasn't getting enough air. We tried taking her out in the freezing cold night air, but it did nothing. We sat in the bathroom with the hot shower running for 10 minutes, but it just kept getting worse. We started looking at her chest and sure enough, the spaces between her ribs were forcefully sucking in with each breath. Also, the spot at the base of her neck was sucking in. She was looking very pale and a bit discolored around the mouth, so I decided it was time to call the doctor. The doctor asked a few questions and then said that it was time to take her to the ER. He said to drive there with the windows down and if her breathing improved at all on the way there, we could wait a bit longer to see if things got better, but if it didn't improve she needed to be seen.

Jackson jumped in the van with her around 4:30 am. Her breathing didn't get any better on the way there, so he took her in. They got them in right away and gave her some kind of steroid breathing treatment. She REALLY didn't like having a mask put over her face. They had to force it on her. But as soon as that was over, her blood oxygen levels came back up and her heart rate slowed down to a normal level. They also gave her a longer acting steroid that helped her through the next night.

She wheezed for a few days and didn't have a voice at all for almost a week! It was strangely quiet around our house for a while :) I didn't realize how much of the noise was coming from her, but now I know who the noise maker is!

I was really worried about Alexander catching it from her, especially after she put a spoon directly from her mouth into his mouth before I could stop her just the day after the ER visit. Sure enough, three weeks later, Alexander came down with it. I was terrified when I heard the first coughs and wheezes. I prayed and prayed and prayed that he would have the most mild case possible. We had two difficult nights, but he never got even close to how bad Estella was. I was so thankful!

Here are a few pictures of the sweet little Estella Belle in her bedroom!

She can't ever stay serious for too long :) She always has to pull a few funny faces for the camera.