Return of the "Ethiopian Flu"

So the Ethiopian Flu has returned to the Catlett household. Don't panic...there isn't really such a thing, that is just my "pet" name for Mari's lovely respiratory symptoms. After coming home with pneumonia, it took over 2 weeks to get rid of the wheezing. We have been happy and healthy since (well except her left arm...but let's put that away!). You've probably guessed by now that that is no longer the case. With my return to work looming in a few days, Mari is sick as snot (trying to be nice since my cousin prints this off for the g-g-parents to read!).

She started about 10 days ago with a runny nose (no biggie!) and by Thursday, she was coughing. Progressively, she has gotten more congested and wheezy. I wasn't too worried but I went ahead and made a MD appt for yesterday simply because she was so tachypneic (that means breathing fast). I thought I was over-reacting (because she is NOwhere close to being as sick as she was the first 2 days in Ethiopia) and that they would tell me she was fine and just let the cold run its course. I was pretty surprised when one of the first things the pediatrician said was "I think we should admit her for a couple days." That would be a real fun task...even with breathing over 80 times a minutes, Mari can still crawl around the house chattering to her imaginary friends. I can't imagine trying to keep her quiet or occupied in a hospital room. So we decided to try things at home. We did some breathing treatments in the office, an RSV and Flu swab (which ended up both being negative), stopped at the pharmacy and dropped off scripts (both ears infected), went to the hospital for a chest xray, went back to the pharmacy to pick up the meds, went to the respiratory place to get a nebulizer. By the time we got home, Mari was wheezy, hungry, exhausted, and had spiked a fever. So we took some Motrin (yes we, cause I needed some too), the antibiotics, a breathing treatment, had a bottle and then played, played, played...forget the nap, the albuterol buzzed us up!

The pediatrician called around 8:30 last night to check on her and give me the xray results...she does not have pneumonia (the MD was concerned that it has returned on the left) but her xray show some inflammatory stuff consistent with reactive airway disease (in other words...we'll be on the breathing treatments for a while).

Mari slept good all night. She is still very wheezy and tachypneic but playful and eating, very active. We go back to the Peds at 2:15 for a recheck. Hopefully they will agree that she is just too playful and active to admit to the hospital (who knows what germs she would pick up there!). I'll try to post a picture later of her and her nebulizer...she has a cute little purple dinosaur mask that she licks during the treatment (no, that is not SOP, but she gets the med whether her mouth is open or closed!).

Well, best go and fold more laundry...naptime is almost over and then another breathing treatment before lunch.



**Update**

Visit to the pediatrician's went well. Mari's doing okay, we will continue on the breathing treatments for awhile and finish out the antibiotics. Hopefully this will break in the next couple of days. Here are a couple pictures of Mari taking her albuterol treatment.