damn the rsv

Oh how I miss the outside world. And apparently will for a long time. We just got home from the hospital with Macie yesterday. Not fun. Riley was sick last week. So I kind of saw it coming. Wednesday the 20th Macie was a little sniffly. Nothing bad. Thursday she was OK. Until Thursday night. She started to have a hard time breathing. I took her respiratory rate. It was varying between 65 to 80 breaths per minute. Too fast. This was at about 7pm. So I called the on-call doc. He was a little concerned and told me that if she started to retract a lot while breathing or her resp rate stayed around 80 for 20 mins or so, we had to take her to the ER. Well, her resp rate calmed down a little (60s) so we were told to hang out until morning and take her into the office. After dropping Ry off at my grandma's, I got Macie to the office at 10:45. The nurse checked her oxygen levels and she was sating at 93%. The doctor came in, listened to her and told me to hold on a second. He grabbed another doc. GREAT. That doc listened as well. They said they'd be right back. MORE GREAT. The first doc came back and said we were going to be admitted to Children's. AHHH. He did an RSV swab and had us come into his office. At this point I am starting to worry. He gets on the phone with Children's and tells them her oxygen levels, that she's retracting when breathing and he wants her admitted right away. He told them that she's really struggling to breathe and he doesn't think she can do it much longer and he doesn't want her to crash in the ER. WHATTT??? OMGOMGOMG. Children's asked if they should send an ambulance (at this point I am ready to vomit in the office) but the doc felt we could get there fast enough. Needless to say I was ushered out of the office with strict instructions to go straight to the hospital. I have no idea how I even got there. I got Matt on the phone and could only muster "meet me at children's now". My head was spinning and I felt like I was going to pass out. I have never been so scared in my life. We got to triage at Children's and they checked her oxygen, now down to 89%. They took her from me without even asking her name or any info. They took her to a bed and immediately got her on oxygen. Matt got there a few minutes later. They started an IV and drew labs (poor baybee) and figured out her oxygen support. We got up to a room about 6pm. The hospital was at max capacity. This is the hospital that I work at, so that was comforting. I know the standard of care and some of the staff. Luckily we brought her in when we did. In babies RSV can get really serious really quickly. She remained on oxygen until Monday and we didn't get discharged until Tuesday. It was so sad to see her like that, hooked up to machines. I know there are babies that are much much sicker. And I am thankful that she didn't get to the point of needing more support. But it still sucks to watch your baybee poked and proded. And feeling like crap. RSV is really common and everyone likely gets it a few times during cold season. However, our airways aren't as affected because they are larger. When babies get RSV they really struggle because their airways are so small already. I'm just glad to be home with both of my baybees. It was hard to not see Riley for those days as well. Matt and I were pretty much going on fumes, alternating between home and the hospital, never wanting Macie to be alone.
I thought we were being cautious because of cold and flu season. We've obviously been avoiding anyone who is sick. We avoid places like the mall. But I guess sometimes it doesn't matter. Riley is like a walking petri dish since he started preschool in the fall. Oh well. I guess I can't live in a bubble.