Not so fast

Emily had a much better day yesterday.  I was so relieved that her fever seemed to stay down, and though her cough still sounded bad, I felt a little better about her. 

I took her to the Dr. just to be sure she was on the up swing.  The Dr. said she had bronchitis and gave us an antibiotic.  Emily came home and ate dinner and really seemed okay.  I even considered sending her to school today.  I had a little unease about that because she had been pretty sick on Wednesday. 

Abby had an appointment for wheelchair repairs that I couldn't miss today, so I decided to find a sitter for Em.  Luckily, Jeff's aunt was available.  Just as I was feeling like I had it together, uh, not so fast.

All of the sudden, like a train hitting, her color changed.  She started coughing non-stop.  She was gagging horribly and her fever jump to 102 out of nowhere.  It was like that great day never even happened.  She was breathing fast and grunting to get the breath back out.  I held her, turned the humidifier on high, rubbed her chest with my favorite Tai fu oil (THE best stuff) and wondered if I should just take her to the hospital.  Then she would cough so bad that she seemed to have trouble taking her next breath and made me wonder if she needed an ambulance.  She'd manage to pull that breath, then do alright for for a few minutes before it started again.

Then she settled down for an hour in my arms.  All night she cycled through horrible gagging, then seemingly never ending coughing spells.   Motrin brought down the fever, Zofran helped not at all  with the nausea.  I couldn't give her anything for the congestion because it's contraindicated with her seizure med.  She did have a pretty good sized seizure after we left the Dr.'s office---that should have tipped me off, but it didn't. 

I was up all night holding her.  Her cough loosened up as the night wore on, but that just gave it an awful croupy sound.  The nausea was out of control.  I'm going to call the dr back about that.  I wonder if the antibiotic set off the tummy. 

I have a horrible headache today, it's raining, Abby still has an appointment, and Emily is finally asleep at 8:13am.  I'm sucking down coffee, taking Motrin, and praying this day gets better!   

Today is one of those days when I will need what I just don't have.  Lord, fill in the gap and help me to do what I need to for my girls today.  Amen!  (sometimes short and sweet is just fine :)