Two sickies and one crazy lady

Randomly me and the kids all caught a delightful summer cold.  Ben got the brunt of it, but it was Natalie that ended up the sickest.  She had very few cold symptoms, but rather immediately began to have difficulty breathing, much like her little episode last month that landed her in the hospital.  Monday morning, I dragged all of us out the door at 7:30 in order to make sick call at the pediatrician by 8:00.  Ben was told he had to ride out his symptoms, just a viral cold.  No problem.  Nat's turn next. By now she was wheezing.  She got a breathing treatment in the office, a brand new diagnosis of "mild asthma," two prescriptions for steroids (oral and inhaled), and a referral for a pulmonary specialist.

While waiting in the pharmacy parking lot for her prescriptions to be filled, we side stepped another landmine when she yelled from her car seat that she needed a bowl.  I whipped around to see a look of panic on her face and her little hands covering her mouth.  I scanned the car.  It was my purse or the little cooler I had packed with some milk and snacks (in the even we had to wait long at the doctor).  I dumped the contents of the cooler all over the front seat and shoved it under her mouth just in time.  Whew.  I guess making her hold a bowl on her lap on the way back from the lake really paid off!

Anyway, long story short, Nat ended up worse before she was better and by dinner we were back at the pediatrician, though by that time all the various medications had taken effect and her breathing had righted itself.  And she had lost her mind.  The albuterol makes her really jittery and restless, and the steroid had a really grand effect.  The doctor said, "don't be surprised if her personality has an edge to it."  She was diving on and off the exam table, and army crawling around the exam room floor under the chairs.  It was embarrassing, but I let it happen because really there wasn't much else to be done and when they said "come right away" I rushed out the door, then sat in the waiting room for 2 hours.  TWO HOURS!!!  So, yes, I did little to stop it because I had nothing left with which to fight it.

Anyway, day two produced a similar result, but Natalie was a happier "drunk" on her meds yesterday.  Here's a glimpse of her on her albuterol/budesonide jag:

I love how fast she was going.  And didn't you want to yell, "watch out, Ben!" at one point?  I sure did.

Our next step is to follow up with the specialist.  In the mean time, we are all working on feeling better, sanitizing the house, and not getting too worked up about anything until we hear what the pulmonologist has to say.