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We Welcomed 2012 With a Heapin' Helpin' of....


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....mycoplasmic pneumonia.

 

Molly went to bed sick on Christmas night. I treated her all week for a head cold, but by Thursday night a raging fever hit that I could not contain-- 103 no matter what I did. A barking cough was emerging at that point.

 

Broke down and called the pediatrician on Friday, who saw her immediately, diagnosed a sinus infection and probably strep and prescribed an antibiotic. Saturday I knew in my gut that it wasn't working but thought I was being ridiculous and should give it more time. Fever continued.

 

Sunday, no fever! I was thinking we were out of the woods! This morning the barking cough turned breathless, and the fever spiked again. I called pediatrician back at 5 pm tonight, and he met us at his office at 6 pm (bless him!) Took one look at her and knew we were going down a bad road. He couldn't listen to her chest as she couldn't take anything other than a shallow breath. Gave us a prescription for Biaxin and a codeine cough syrup and it's back to bed for week number two.

 

Many kids on her high school swim team are sick, and the ped. is pretty sure It Came From the Pool. (I capitalized that because it sounds like the title of a horror movie, ;))

 

UGH. I fear it's a long road ahead of us! And missing all her AP classes now that she's in school is adding to her hysteria. Double UGH. How I long for the days when we could just suspend school until we felt better!

 

Hope you're all staying healthy!

astrid

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:grouphug:

 

ds14 is down with pneumonia as well. I took him into urgent care with a fever of 102 and a barking cough this morning. He'd had a cough for a week or so and all his siblings and his dad are coughing as well but not with that barking sound. Poor kid will be missing the Washington Open gymnastics meet this weekend again. Pretty soon they are just going to mail us the T-shirt when they see his registration, lol.

 

He got a breathing treatment at urgent care and came home with scripts for antibiotics, cough medicine, steroids, and an inhaler.

 

I took my daughter as well because she had a cough, low fever and had been complaining about her left ear. We found a bead (like the kind little girls string together to make play jewelry...) in her right ear that had obviously been there a while. Strangest incidental finding ever.

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....mycoplasmic pneumonia.

 

 

My daughter had this a few weeks ago, too! She recovered within a couple of weeks, though. But then we all got sick, recovered for a week, then got sick again (colds, this time). We are hopefully now at the tail end of two months of sickness. It has been very depressing.

 

:grouphug:

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Emma had pneumonia in the fall, and it was really bad! She has asthma, so of course, that made it worse, but it took quite a while for her to be back to herself.

 

Is Molly wheezing? I wonder if she needs a steroid too. Emma had to have one, but again, that might be because she has asthma as well.

 

Hope your girl feels better soon! Praying for her! :grouphug:

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Emma had pneumonia in the fall, and it was really bad! She has asthma, so of course, that made it worse, but it took quite a while for her to be back to herself.

 

Is Molly wheezing? I wonder if she needs a steroid too. Emma had to have one, but again, that might be because she has asthma as well.

 

Hope your girl feels better soon! Praying for her! :grouphug:

 

:iagree: or she may need an inhaler.

 

I'm sure you know this, but she is going to have to gently ease back into swimming. She likely won't be ready to go anytime soon, and she likely won't start off swimming as long or as strongly as she did before getting pneumonia.

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:iagree: or she may need an inhaler.

 

I'm sure you know this, but she is going to have to gently ease back into swimming. She likely won't be ready to go anytime soon, and she likely won't start off swimming as long or as strongly as she did before getting pneumonia.

 

Yep, forgot about the albuterol inhaler. Emma had to have albuterol nebulizer treatments at first, but she also had an inhaler to use after she didn't need the nebs anymore.

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:iagree: or she may need an inhaler.

 

I'm sure you know this, but she is going to have to gently ease back into swimming. She likely won't be ready to go anytime soon, and she likely won't start off swimming as long or as strongly as she did before getting pneumonia.

 

 

Yes, she has an albuterol inhaler. She does not have asthma, but the ped. prescribed one for her so she'd have it. She's only used it twice though.

 

I was wondering about swimming. As I've said, this is our first year on the team, but Molly was doing really well-- had won a freestyle 50 and placed 3rd in a 200; she's got (well, HAD) pretty good strength and endurance. Seeing her now, I can't imagine her even making it to the other end of the pool-- going upstairs is exhausting for her. I really hesitate to let her go back to the pool any time soon. I'm sure she won't feel ready until at LEAST next week, and that's optimistic (indulge me!) but after that? Maybe just participate in the weight training/dry land stuff to the extent that she can?

 

I think my hesitance is partially fueled by the fact that I now see the pool as a teeming cesspool of toxic waste and bacteria! :001_smile:

 

Any thoughts?

 

Thank you all for your kind thoughts, hugs and well wishes! They mean so much to us.

 

astrid

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She's hanging in there; yesterday was not as good a day as Tuesday was, but I'm told that ups and downs are to be expected with this. She was still asleep when I left for work this morning (my mom is retired and lives with us) but I went in, spoke to her, and felt her head-- fever is gone and has been for more than 24 hours now, so that's a good sign. I'm hoping this is the right antibiotic-- it's a pretty strong one, and the pills are HUGE, so it's gotta do something, right? :tongue_smilie: I'm making sure she eats yogurt every day because I"m SURE it's doing a number on her gut.

 

So, we plod along, and are thankful for streaming Netflix through the Wii! :D

 

astrid

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Oh my gosh I'm so glad you recovered!

I keep thinking about that brilliant mind, Jim Henson. He died of pneumonia, didn't he? I don't know the particulars, and whether he had any underlying issues, but ever since then I've looked at it completely differently.

 

(and Kermit still sounds so strange to me. :crying: )

 

astrid

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I also had a bad bout of pneumonia when I was in 8th grade. I was back at school after a couple of weeks, but it was a few months for me also to really feel 100%.

 

For many, many years after that (about 20 years?), I could tell when I was starting to get over-exhausted/too busy. When I would breathe deeply, I would get this ache part-way down my back (kind of even w/ where the bottom of my lungs would be). I think it was definitely my body's way of telling me to cool it. (I never felt it before I had pneumonia, but it definitely appeared after recovering from pneumonia.) I don't know if it's finally gone away or if I just do a better job now of taking care of myself & listening to my body earlier, but I don't really feel it anymore these days. It's something to mention to Molly to keep in mind, even long, long after her recovery -- listen to her body & rest rather than keep on pushing, if at all possible....

 

:grouphug:

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I'd bet it's related to your pneumonia, Stacia. Thanks for the info-- I'll definitely mention it to Molly. For her whole life, she's worked incredibly hard at talking herself out of admitting that she feels sick. Christmas night she started fading as I was getting dinner on the table. She looked awful, but sat at the table and picked at her dinner, which wasn't like her because she's a great eater.

 

After dinner we were clearing the table and I suggested she just go upstairs to bed, but she replied, "Oh no, I feel better. I think the food perked me up!" Yeah. Right. She always tries to talk/psyche herself out of sickness. So your warning is definitely a conversation I"ll be having with Molly TOMORROW, the day after that, the week after that, and then again down the road.

 

Thanks for your well wishes!

 

astrid

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....mycoplasmic pneumonia.

 

Molly went to bed sick on Christmas night. I treated her all week for a head cold, but by Thursday night a raging fever hit that I could not contain-- 103 no matter what I did. A barking cough was emerging at that point.

 

Broke down and called the pediatrician on Friday, who saw her immediately, diagnosed a sinus infection and probably strep and prescribed an antibiotic. Saturday I knew in my gut that it wasn't working but thought I was being ridiculous and should give it more time. Fever continued.

 

Sunday, no fever! I was thinking we were out of the woods! This morning the barking cough turned breathless, and the fever spiked again. I called pediatrician back at 5 pm tonight, and he met us at his office at 6 pm (bless him!) Took one look at her and knew we were going down a bad road. He couldn't listen to her chest as she couldn't take anything other than a shallow breath. Gave us a prescription for Biaxin and a codeine cough syrup and it's back to bed for week number two.

 

Many kids on her high school swim team are sick, and the ped. is pretty sure It Came From the Pool. (I capitalized that because it sounds like the title of a horror movie, ;))

 

UGH. I fear it's a long road ahead of us! And missing all her AP classes now that she's in school is adding to her hysteria. Double UGH. How I long for the days when we could just suspend school until we felt better!

 

Hope you're all staying healthy!

astrid

:grouphug::grouphug:

It probably did come from the pool:tongue_smilie:

I am so sorry....hope your dd feels better soon. Did the doc swab her for whooping cough...kids that age can get it as their immunizations wear off...if they even really work against the new strains.tat

I don't know if niacin works with whooping cough...I know zithromax does. Hope she is all better soon...and no one else gets sick. :grouphug:

Faithe

 

ETA: ds had pneumonia in 09 and still gets tired easily. He had it as a complication of Lyme Disease....it is a slow steady road. Good thing your dd is a hardy sort...just no over doing it for a while...

Edited by Mommyfaithe
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Aw, so sweet of you to think of us!

Going okay--we're definitely on an upward trajectory. Follow-up chest x-ray showed improvement, and she's feeling much better, so the antibiotic are working. She's but frustrated that she can't practice her oboe-- not enough breath! Still out of school, but hopes she can go back on Monday. Fingers crossed! She won't be walking to and from school, though, as she usually does...that might be pushing it! Swim practice is a definite no-go for a while yet, I think!

 

Thanks again for your concern!

 

astrid

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