Thursday, Alaina seemed great. Because of the school's "24 hour (fever-free) rule" I kept her home and we hung out. We even had lunch with Drs. Beasley and Wingate. :) She was so excited, she missed her morning nap.
We had a few hours before her doctor's appointment, so I stopped in work to do a few things and let A hang out. Let's be honest, the only real reasons I went to work was because there was a parking space open right in front of our building and it had been awhile since some of the faculty, staff, and students had gotten to see A.
I accidentally left my phone in the car and right as I was about to head home so that A could get some rest, a friend stopped me to say Chad was trying to get in touch with me because there was a storm moving in our direction. His work was sending people home so he was going to pick up the dogs and meet me in my office. The psychology building is a safe building during storms. We hung out in my office until the coast was clear. Our county got a tornado warning but fortunately, the storm was about 20 miles from us. Baby A took the time to explore my office and take a good nap.
Following the storm, we had just enough time for Chad to run the dogs back home and make our appointment. A's fever had gone down the night before but I was still a little concerned about her wheezing. The nurse and doctor were also wary. Her pulse-ox was a little low, but wasn't terrible. They started her on a breathing treatment right away, though. At first A didn't really mind the nebulizer but she started getting antsy and nervous. We explained everything that was happening and validating her concerns, which I think was helpful.
The pediatrician came back and said that it could be a viral infection, walking pneumonia, or asthma. We talked about what to look for in her breathing and were prescribed an albuterol inhaler. She also ordered a chest x-ray and a blood test. As you can imagine, A was not a fan of either of those things. By the time we got home, poor thing was pretty exhausted.
However, the next morning she seemed to be doing a lot better. The nurse called and said the results were all negative and they thought it was probably just a virus. However, they were concerned that she was still wheezing and coughing so, in addition to continuing the inhaler, we also started a round of prednisone. Both of those can cause yucky side effects like irritability and nervousness. I had heard they can also increase a kid's appetite but A wanted nothing to do with food once she started them. So she pretty much vacillated between extreme grumpiness and sunniness.
Speaking of sunshine...mine & Chad's 10 year wedding anniversary was Friday night. Unfortunately for us, there was more bad weather predicted and this time we heard that Stillwater was in the "crosshairs". As soon as we got home from work, we loaded up the car with our tornado preparations, got the dogs together, and quickly cooked a frozen pizza. It was kind of a mess--2 dogs, 2 adults, and a baby have a lot of stuff and a lot of logistics had to be worked out (finding a spot in the basement, keeping everyone happy, accessing weather information online, etc.). Every May/June, I think long and hard about starting to save for a tornado shelter in the garage! By the time tornado season ends, though, it's generally not on my mind. Maybe someone should remind me in January. :) This year, I had the added concern of having family living in Oklahoma. The tornado that hit El Reno got a little too close to Yukon. I am glad Kris is at least smart and is getting a shelter installed this August. We were all very fortunate that the storms bypassed us. I am always so thankful.
We had a good weekend, though. On Monday, A started her first day of the 1-year classroom. She has been going to visit on occasion but this was her first full day. They said she did really well. Her mid-day nap was short and she ended up falling asleep outside on a bean bag chair. Poor thing. On the drive home, my usual chatty little girl didn't make a peep. Chad and I were chuckling because she was just so tired. However, then she proceeded to throw up all over Chad's shirt. I kept her home from school again today and she seemed perfectly fine. She ended up sleeping a lot yesterday evening and today but it's still unclear if this was just a quick virus or if it was the stress of the new class and new food (she had some sort of breakfast pizza that we wonder about along with a salad and crackers with cream cheese and raisins...). She slept until 9 am and then had a 2.5 hour nap so hopefully that will help her recover. I was hesitant to feed her much at first. We started with pedialyte and then moved to crackers but she was pretty mad I wasn't feeding her fast enough! We ended up having a really nice day today. Hopefully we can get back on schedule tomorrow, though. I've been out from work for basically a week.
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