Thursday, November 26, 2009

Thankful for Nine Months

As of 5:29 p.m. today, Andrea is celebrating 9 months of life. The fact that it is also Thanksgiving seems especially appropriate. We rejoice in the milestone, and are thankful for our great good fortune.

I haven't posted in a few weeks, because Andrea has been quite sick. As usual, with her it begins small, but escalates quickly. Last Thursday, (11/19) she has a little sniffle and a slight cough. On Friday, I called her pulmonologist to see if we could be seen, since none of the doctors' offices we frequent have weekend hours. We were fortunate in that there was a cancellation, and we got Andrea checked out. Her chest was tight enough that the doctor gave us stronger medicine for the nebulizer, and increased her Flovent from the 44 dosage to 110. We went home, hopeful that the medicine would do the trick.

In the evening on Friday, Andrea began to run a fever. It wasn't high, just 100.4 F, but she'd never had a fever before, except for one day in the hospital last June. Luckily, "her" pulmonologist was the doctor on call over the weekend, so I called him for advice. We were told to give her Tylenol, and call back if the fever persisted on Saturday. Most of Saturday morning, she was fever free (well, 99+, but that's not a fever for the doctors). However, about 5:00, she was back on the 100.9 F range. I called the doctor again, who decided to start her on TamiFlu, just to be safe.

Now, if you have not been living under a rock for the past few months, you know that there is great panic because of H1N1 ("Swine") flu, and many pharmacies are out of children's TamiFlu. It has to be in liquid form for the babies, obviously. Some pharmacies are "compounding" liquid TamiFlu from the adult capsules. There is only one pharmacy in our area that does that, so we called them to see if they had stock to make the drug. Amazingly enough, they had the liquid on hand, but were closing in less than 15 minutes. The doctor called in the order, and Ken raced to the store. I generally don't publish names in the blog, outside our immediate family, but I need to acknowledge this store. The pharmacist at Liberty Pharmacy in Chatham, NJ stayed in the store until Ken got there, fortunately just slightly after closing time. On top of that, when we ran out of medicine because Andrea spit out a dose and it needed to be repeated, he had another one ready to go for us. It was reminiscent of the old style businesses, where people are important, and the goal is to help, rather than just to make money. We were greatly impressed by the service and the treatment we received. So, THANK YOU Liberty Pharmacy. You are one of the many things we are thankful for today.

So, it has been a rough week. The fever spiked at 101.5 F on Sunday night, and has been gone since Monday morning. We still give breathing treatments as needed, usually 4 or 5 a day. To Andrea's relief, she took the last does of TamiFlu this morning. It must taste terrible. She has not been a fan. She is still coughing and very stuffy. She has a hard time eating, since she cannot breathe through her nose. We do some respiratory therapy on her back, to try to clear the congestion from her lungs.

Andrea was due for her 9-month "well-baby" visit yesterday, but was too sick to really have a good checkup. The doctor looked her over, and we got an updated weight and measurement. (13 lbs, 15 oz, and 25 inches long!) We rescheduled the visit for mid-December, at which point we can start giving Andrea some solid foods. We have been giving her milk off a spoon at the dinner table, so at least she has the idea of it already!



Here is Andrea in her Thanksgiving outfit. She's too sick to go out, so she and I are hanging out at home. Ken got me Chinese food, and I'm planning to watch "Angels and Demons" on Pay-Per-View. Kenny G is with my family, and Ken and Kenny C are off to celebrate with his family. Still, I wanted Andrea to get to wear her new clothes. This is the first time she's worn a dress. We opted for leggings under the skirt, instead of stockings. It's too cold to be bare-legged, and the stockings aren't as comfortable! (Thank you Grammy and Ann Marie!)

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

2 comments:

  1. Happy Thanksgiving - God Bless you and your wonderful family x
    (Thank you for your updates).
    sue (t other side o t pond) x

    ReplyDelete
  2. Happy Thanksgiving - we missed you -Arlene

    ReplyDelete