Not waiting for it to get worse

Has it been another week already? Crazy how time flies when you've got four kids running you ragged and tons of wacky weather.

All week, I was listening to Tulla's breathing. I gave her an inhaler every four hours while she was awake, and the steroid inhaler twice a day on top of that, hoping that it would help her sound better...

But of course, she doesn't sound better. My stress level still goes up, because this is what she used to sound like before we knew it was bronchitis, and her oxygen levels were dropping at night. I think back to all those months of people asking me if my daughter was sick, and my shrugging it off, saying she's just a noisy breather, because that's what the doctors had told me.

Thankfully, her oxygen is stable right now. She sounds rough, but she's okay.

I took her to the walk-in today, because her primary doctor is out of the office until Thursday, and that seemed too far away. Oh my goodness. Four children in a waiting room, then up to radiology for imaging... Then we had to go across the hospital to another imaging room because the orders were sent to the wrong location.

I'm proud of my boys and how well they behaved. They didn't argue over whose turn it was to push the elevator button or throw a fit when the other lady on one of the elevators pushed the buttons instead of one of them. Hiking back and forth across the hospital while herding them was exhausting, though.

Pro tip: red light, green light is extremely effective at keeping boys from running full throttle down long open hallways.

The imaging was more precautionary than anything else, to confirm she didn't have any infections, like pneumonia or bronchitis. Being in the walk-in definitely brought back a lot of unresolved emotions. Last winter, I took Tulla in several times because I didn't think she sounded good. They would listen to her, say her lungs didn't sound too bad, she wasn't showing other symptoms, and send me home.

Today felt like one of those days. I went home without feeling like they took it seriously, even with Tulla's history. The X-ray showed thickening of the bronchial walls, which is basically a fancy way of saying there's probably a virus in there (like bronchitis, imagine that). The doctor's advice was still to wait and watch for a while, then contact the pulmonologist if she doesn't improve or gets worse.

Well, I have been down this road before. I am not letting her get worse before I get her help. Tulla has dealt with this before, and I first noticed her breathing change at the beginning of the month. It's only gotten louder and more rattly since then. In fact, her oxygen did drop below 90 for the first time in over a month last night. Does that change the pediatrician's recommendations? Nope. Even with the oxygen stable, I've noticed some discoloration around her mouth during the day.

I'm not going back there again. Of course, I already contacted her pulmonologist. Team Tulla doesn't wait for things to get worse before getting her the help she needs. I already took the week the pulmonologist instructed with the inhaler regimen, so I'm pretty sure when she reads my message, she's going to prescribe antibiotics since that's the next step of her sickness plan.

I'm grateful that I know where to go to get Tulla the help she needs now. We are in a way better place than we were last winter. She has the equipment needed to monitor her levels at home, and she has a doctor who will get her what she needs, even if the regular pediatrician wants to wait.