So Onna has been sick again. It seems she's always sick this time of year. Since my memory doesn't seem to be getting better as I age, I figured I better get this all documented before I forget it.
This all started back in November. On, Tuesday, November 20th Onna received her flu shot. By the next day, she had a headache and left school early. My dad picked her up, and she rested on their couch for the afternoon. When I got home, she was running a slight fever. The next day was Thanksgiving. She spend the day with a runny nose, a slight fever and a persistent cough. By that evening her cough had progressed to the point that she was vomiting. I started her neb treatments at that time. I continued neb treatments until I could get her in to be seen at the clinic on Monday morning.
That Monday morning (November 26th), she saw the PA at our local clinic. She was started on azithromycin for 5 days. She stayed home from school that day and the next day. She attempted to go to school on that Thursday (November 29th). I received a call from school that she was having pain when she breathed. I picked her up from school and had her rechecked by the PA. We were told that the pain she was feeling was from pain in her chest muscles. She'd been coughing a lot and this had the muscles of her rib cage sore. She said to "keep doing what you're doing," and that Onna's sounded "much better."
I wasn't very satisfied with this plan, but did "keep doing what we were doing." We finished the azithromycin. She didn't really seem to get better or worse. We went to our chiropractor over the weekend (December 1st). She went to school on Monday, December 3rd, and Tuesday, December 4th. That day, I got a text at noon. I was busy, and didn't hear my phone. At 2:00, I got a message from the office that Onna was in the Grade School office laying down. She'd been coughing, and didn't feel well. I called the secretary, and her teacher. She had gone back to class, and actually out at recess when I called. We made the decision to let her finish out the school day, but skip the 4-H meeting after school. Instead of going to that, I took her to the clinic. She saw a different PA this time. She was coughing very frequently by the time we got to the clinic. The PA hadn't seen her before and did a very thorough history on her. She listened to her and visited with me. She decided that Prednisone was needed, and I agreed. We started Prednisone that evening, and continued with nebs. I gave the first half of the dose at 6:30 p.m. She was coughing so hard at that point, that her stomach was upset. I was worried about giving the full dose, because I was afraid it would come right back up. So I gave the first dose, and hoped that it would stay down. She had to fight very hard to keep it down. She managed to do this, but her stomach wasn't settled enough to do the next half of the dose until 8:30 p.m. She fought to keep this dose down as well. At 10:30 p.m. she vomited, a lot. She was still coughing very frequently, which is what caused the vomiting. Mom took her outside, wrapped in a blanket. They sat in the swing and read a story together. This slowed the coughing while she was outside, but when they came in she would start again. We tried to go to bed, but she couldn't stop coughing while laying down. So then we moved to the recliner. At about 1:00 a.m. we called my mom. Onna's coughing still hadn't slowed down. This was with the Prednisone and neb treatments being given. Mom called over and we talked to the PA that was on call that night. The PA said there was nothing more that they could do for her than what we were already doing. Onna's oxygen saturation levels were good (98). So we worked on getting the coughing stopped. We got the humidity up in the room, and at 2:00 a.m. I gave another half dose of Prednisone (she'd vomited one dose). At 3:15 a.m. she fell asleep.
We stayed home from school that day (December 5th) and the next day (December 6th). December 7th was Onna's birthday party. She was feeling "better, but not good." The prednisone had finally started working. She had six friends come over to play and celebrate her birthday that evening. The next day was her birthday, and we celebrated, by staying home and opening presents with family.
Sunday, December, 9th was supposed to be Onna's Christmas program at church. Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate, and the program was postponed for one week. John's mom, Anna Mae, was here for the program. She got snowed in with us the evening. The next morning (December 10th) was a late start because of the snow. We went to school at 10:00. At noon, I got a call from the Grade School office. Onna was there with a terrible headache. I called John, and he picked her up from school. Onna spent the rest of the day with Anna Mae. We stayed home the next day (December 11th) too. I called the Allergy and Asthma clinic. Onna had temporarily quit taking a few of her meds for her upcoming appointment. I asked if she could restart some of them, thinking that this may be the cause of her headache. They said that 2 of the 3 meds would be fine for her to take. This seemed to help, and she attended school on Wednesday, December 12th.
Thursday, December 13th was her appointment with the Allergy and Asthma doctor. Our appointment was at 9:30 a.m. The doctor took her history and had her do the spirometer. She did very well on that! Then he did skin testing for allergies. She had 24 pokes on her back, and one on her arm. Then she had to wait 15 minutes without moving. He came in and looked at the results. He wasn't satisfied with results at that point, so he had her wait for 10 more minutes. At that time the results were that she has no major allergies. No allergies to common foods, mold, weeds, grass, dust mites, cat or dog dander. He's happy with the progress she's made with the Prednisone during this illness. He said that she's a kid that is more prone to respiratory type illnesses. She will still need nebs and prednisone during the times of year when she gets sick. As she gets older, and her progress continues, he plans to gradually decrease her off of some of the meds that she is currently taking. Because of her tendency to escalate quickly during respiratory episodes, we will need to be alert to changes. She will continue seeing him for follow-up appointments.
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