Saturday, March 27, 2010

Viruses, Allergies, & Recovery


The end of February and the first half of March were plagued by illness and allergies. There were lots of long nights, but only one very scary one where Neavey's airway became seriously compromised.

Neavey was at her dad's house, and luckily her step mom saw the trouble Neavey was having breathing and had dad call Keith and me. It was definitely an episode that was going to take a team response. Within 10 minutes of the call Keith and I were on our way to his house, driving through an almost surreal 2 AM fog, armed with suction machine, pulse-oximeter and other various bits. The best bit was a simple tongue blade. You know, the "say ahhh" thing. Neavey's pediatrician has coached me on how to help Neavey recover her airway when it is "clogged" with excessive mucus. Inducing a gag reflex to encourage vomiting is the best way to clear the upper and even lower airway in some cases. It is much less invasive than sending a catheter down her throat to "suck it out". The gagging and vomiting worked like a charm. She spewed up at least 100 mls of thick yellow mucus that was clogging her upper airway. Her pulse-ox went from 80% to 94% within minutes. If you don't know, at 80% pulse-ox you are pretty much ashen or blue in color. Thank goodness for my mom's foresight to get Neavey a Pulse oximeter for Christmas. It might sound like an odd gift, but so helpful! YAY for Grandma RN.

That was how the second virus went down. The third (plus the onset of allergies) is about two weeks behind us now... We are hoping for an uneventful summer! The slide show above is from pictures taken of her between virus 2 and 3. Keith and I got her this the adjustable bench like the one she uses with Jacy (PT) for Christmas. She has been doing a great job of bearing weight through her arms as she works at the bench.