How is Haley? October 9, 2009

Haley and Daddy sleeping in the ER waiting room

So many of you have been calling and texting and I want you to all know that means so much to us! The phones have been ringing off the hook! I haven’t had time to talk with everyone…so I thought I would give you the most recent update all at once on the blog.

 Haley has been very sick for 2 weeks, and the Dr. has continued to say that she had an upper respiratory infection. He put her on a round of antibiotics on Monday, September 28th, but on Monday, October 5th we saw no improvement. She had been coughing deep in chest to point that she would sometimes throw up. So on Monday, October 5th we took her back to see her Dr. He then prescribed a round of steroids and breathing treatments every 4 hrs. 

Three days later on Thursday October 8th we saw no improvement in her condition. I told Matt that I think she needs and x-ray and blood work, and we should take her to the ER. Two hours after I said that she broke out in terrible hives. The pictures do not do it justice. I didn’t even know they were hives because it was so bad. Her skin was raised and blistered and they covered her from head to toe. We immediately threw her in the car and rushed to the emergency room.

We spent 9 hours in the ER last night!!! Yes 9 hours!! The ERs were all flooded with patients, and there were not enough beds so people were being treated from the waiting room. I spent 9 hours sitting on a hard chair with my child in my arms, minus her brief nap with daddy. In that time they did a chest x-ray, labs, and a flu swab. Four hours after doing the flu swab, they came out and told us that they had lost it!! First of all I thought the flu swab was a cotton thing they just rub in your nose. Nope it was a scrapey little toothbrush that they shoved all the way up her nose till she screamed in pain. After that mucus comes flying out, and when I asked the respiratory therapist for tissue she said she would get it then turned around and answered her cell phone. People have no bedside manner now a days! So when she came and told me she lost Haley’s test we were obviously very upset. We agreed to do it again, and the Dr. promised he would walk it down to the lab and watch them test it. Ten minutes later he returned with her results. He said she has Influenza A (H1N1) which is the family that swine flu falls in. The are not testing for a specific strain at this time since the results take two weeks to get, and the treatment is all the same. Influenza A is the non seasonal flu that originates from pigs or birds. Since bird flu is not going around and swine flu is, the conclusion was that she had SWINE FLU. I was terrified. I still am, and I am also very scared for Adelynn since she is only 7 months old and has been around Haley so much.  The chest x-ray returned also saying she had pneumonia! As if swine flu wasn’t enough.  The hives, which were unexplained would not go away and neither would the fever.

I was hesitant to bring her home, but I did. The Dr. prescribed her very strong antibiotics and Tamiflu. On our way home we stopped at the pharmacy, and to our surprise they did not have Tamiflu. After making at least 20 phone calls we realized no one had Tamiflu. People who didn’t need it, but wanted to have it on hand have apparently been filling prescriptions for it! So now my child is very sick, and we could not find the medicine that she desperately needed. We brought her home, bathed her, fed her, and put her in bed. About two hours later she took a turn for the worse. The hives that we thought couldn’t get any worse did and had merged together. She was bright red from head to toe. The whites of her eyes were red, her lips were red, and her skin was blistering. Here eyelids were swelling shut. I called the ER and they told me that I could bring her back and they would transfer her to children’s hospital in San Diego to be admitted.

Right at that time (3:45 AM), Matt located a 24 hr pharmacy in Fallbrook (45 min away) that had the Tamiflu medicine in a caplet form and they were willing to crush it, reconstitute it, and make it into a liquid for us. He immediately jumped in the car to go and get it. I began packing Haley to take her back to the hospital, when I heard her on the monitor begin to choke. I ran in her room and she began to vomit all over herself. Ironically at that same time the hives began to fade!!! Matt came home with her meds (which insurance denied so we paid $100 for about 4 tablespoons of it) and we fed her and put her back in bed. The vomiting continued all night..about every 45 mins. It’s apparently another symptom of this flu.

When she woke up this morning the hives were about 80% gone and she seemed to be more alert and less lethargic. Her face and body are very swollen. The fevers have been constant, along with the her being nauseous. She did eat some Mac & Cheese, her favorite, and drank water. She sat up long enough to do a puzzle with me…so things seem to be looking up.

I just wanted to update everyone on how she is doing…please keep our family in your prayers during this difficult time. I will update the blog as things change…kids seem to get worse at night…please pray that tonight is better than last night.

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