Weathering Verity's First Real Sickness

March was a busy month for Verity! In between her big birthday party and getting her first car, we had an emergency trip to the hospital along with a brief (30-hour) stay in the pediatric unit. The week leading up to Verity's party, a few of our kiddos had been sick with some kind of respiratory junk, the first time in a long time we've really battled anything other than minor sniffles. Thanks to our wellness regimen, we were able to contain things pretty well--the kids who did get sick were better within a couple of days, and we managed to keep them as far away from Verity as possible. I had every diffuser in the house kept busy disseminating our essential oils into the air, and we oiled everyone's feet at night and drank a lot of Thieves tea! It seemed that Verity, Rhema, and I were going to escape unscathed.

But alas, in the end Verity did succumb. Frankly, I'm amazed that she was the last to get sick! Her immune system does not seem fragile at all! But of course it hit over the weekend...our nurse warned us on Friday that she suspected something was coming on, and sure enough, Saturday morning Verity was just not herself. She had a low grade fever Sunday afternoon, and we decided to put her oxygen on for a bit of support. We were hopeful that we could ride it all out at home.

But Sunday night things took a turn for the worse. We were so grateful that we had a nurse on duty overnight! She worked with our oxygen tanks as needed but our supply wasn't enough (we only have 2 tiny tanks because we were prescribed a minimal amount--which we aren't even currently using--to help with OSA). We learned later that one of our valves was faulty, so we had an empty tank we thought was full.

Anyway--by 4am we were making plans to take Verity to the hospital, but before I could collect my thoughts and my things, our nurse told me I needed to call 911 instead. Verity was non-responsive and turning dusky. The EMS team arrived quickly and gave Verity a nebulizer treatment and more oxygen before we strapped her into her car seat and secured that into the ambulance. I rode along with her, and it was obvious that the treatment had helped significantly--she simply sat quietly, looking around!

They never did any testing to find out what respiratory thing she was fighting, but whatever it was, it didn't knock her out too long. We were admitted to the hospital and stayed overnight. Verity slept almost the whole time we were there. We knew she wasn't feeling well because she never fought her cannula! The next morning, though, she was doing well on minimal oxygen (she was only at 1/4L after arriving anyway), so we were discharged with more tanks from our medical supply company and orders to keep her on 1/8L probably for "a couple of weeks."

Three days later, we followed up with her PCM, and after a half-hour trial, we were able to ditch the oxygen! Of course she was heavily monitored, but praise the Lord we never did have to give it to her again. And a follow-up with her pulmonologist a week after that also gave good news--she doesn't think Verity needs to be followed, as her lungs are (and always have been) so clear. However, we did put another follow-up appointment on the schedule just in case the sleep clinic (scheduled for the end of May) doctor decides that Verity should be seen by pulmonology again.