Monday: Grace had a touch of cough every now and then, increasing in frequency by evening. O2 stats fine (97-98%). I told her she needed to use her albuterol inhaler before bed, as a preventative measure, as her cough was sounding more asthma-like. (When you’re an asthma mom, you learn to listen for the different coughs.)
“Yeah, when I was out picking strawberries, I was totally wheezing.”
-note- she’s telling me this several hours later…
“I thought I heard a cat by me, and I was like ‘what was that? There’s no cat here’ and I breathed again, and I was like ‘whoa, that’s me!’”
-no audible wheezing at that time in the evening, 2 puffs on the albuterol inhaler anyway, before getting ready for be, sometime around 7:30 pm.
She came down around 9:30 pm to tell me “I need another puff”. I could hear wheezing. O2 still looked good, 98%. Sent her to bed.
Tuesday: She woke me up at 5:30 am, “Mom, I’m wheezing.” “What? Huh? Oh, it’s you. What? Oh, yes, you are, let’s grab the inhaler. O2 is at 90% before, comes up to 93-94% within a few minutes after. I sent her back to sleep on the couch. I fell back into bed, but couldn’t get back to sleep. Checked her again at 7:00, O2 back down to 91%, another 2 puffs.
I realized she wasn’t reacting as well as we would all like to see and she needed to go to the nebulizer, and she needed to get a neb every 2 hrs, not the usual 4 hrs.
Nebs @ 8:00 am, 10:00 am, and 12:00 noon. O2 stats hovered between 90 and 94% all morning.
Nebs @ 2:30 pm, 5:00 pm, and 8pm, trying to space them a bit more, but stats would dip to 88-90%. It was time to start the oral steroid burst, which she got around 4pm.
To be continued… (rough night, heading to town for a chest x-ray)
Tuesday (continued): She was doing ok by bedtime, the coughing had settled down, and her O2 level wasn’t so worrisome at around 94%. She went to bed, I sat down to read. (Mr. Extraordinary was working late, our teenager is away at a camp this week, and all the 6 children at home were in bed and asleep by this time.) Despite the rough day, with her having had the steroid in her system for 6 hrs or more and with her good before bed O2 level, I really wasn’t too worried about the night. I didn’t hear any coughing or even any tossing and turning coming from upstairs. I had planned on checking on her one last time before I climbed into bed, and probably bring up the inhaler with the AeroChamber to give her another dose of albuterol in her sleep without having to wake her up for a neb.
I was up late, my husband working late gave me a nice stretch of quiet time to myself. I sat up reading- some blogs, some articles, some verses, in the wrong order, and then there was the thud and the crying. Mercy had fallen out of bed (not a bad fall, she’s in a little toddler bed). She moves around a lot in her sleep and falls out rather often. She tends to sit there and cry, not getting back into bed by herself. Sometimes one of her sisters wakes up and tells her to get back into bed and she does with no more crying. Sometimes they sleep like rocks and nobody wakes up despite the crying and screaming and downright carrying on happening a few feet away.
I was planning on heading up to check on Grace soon anyway, so I grabbed the pulse oximeter and inhaler and headed upstairs. I found Mercy, just as I had expected, sitting up right next to her bed, crying in a half-asleep, well, probably more than half… The rest of the room was quiet. Fast asleep. No coughing. no tossing and turning. No audible wheezing. Gracie looked so peaceful and comfortable in her sweet sleep. I thought about how good she looked, about how much her body needed that good rest and rejuvenation.
But her O2 level was back down to 88%.
I leaned closer and then I heard it. Audible wheezing, crackles, and squawks. She needed a neb, and she was close to needing oxygen.
It’s normal for our oxygen saturation levels to dip in our sleep, but not so normal to dip below 90%, most people don’t even dip below 95%.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I will def be praying for yall that this asthma attack quickly subsides. My lil guy also has asthma so I understand what your going through. Where did you get your 02 meter? we were thinking of getting one for our son as well.
Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers.
Our pediatrician ordered our pulse oximeter and our insurance covered it so we have the same one that they use in our clinic! (though I have looked and have seen them for sale on-line, if your insurance won’t cover one.)
With our daughter’s asthma, her symptoms aren’t always so obvious, sometimes she’s very quiet, ans we wouldn’t even know it was getting bad if we didn’t check her O2 level… I’m so very glad to have that tool!