Thanks for the emails - here's a brief update before I dash to catch sleep while it's available. I think we're in week 7 now. That must be a new record. Not inspiring are the words of her (more than 1) ENT specialists who have all declared they've never seen anything like this and don't know how to fix it. Basically, the 'roids help, but never completely solve the problem. So, life is comprised of trips to the ER for a quick fix and, more recently, a bigger dose followed by 2 weeks on a puffer. The last big dose does seem to have successfully diminished (but not eliminated) the cough, making longer stretches of sleep possible for both mommy and baby. It's only over the past 3 days or so that her breathing has stabilized at night sufficiently that I'm not waking up every hour or more. Sadly, the additional sleep seems to mean I'm off my adrenaline rush, and so I seem to be more tired now than when I waking up 8 or so times a night! The point of all this is that there is an underlying cause - something is causing the endless croup encores, but no one knows what it is. The only way to find out for sure is to scope her. But she can't be scoped until her breathing is back to normal, since she can't be anesthetized while there's any swelling in her throat. So, we have a catch 22, which is hopefully what 2 weeks of puffer will resolve. We're wrapping up week 1, however, and while she's much improved, it ain't over. Without making myself crazy from a bunch of googling worse case scenarios, the throat xray has confirmed there's no tumour, so we appear to be waiting for confirmation of either a cyst, a natural abnormal narrowness to her throat (which she'll have to grow out of), or something to do with her adenoids. Time will tell. In the meantime, she continues to be my good natured little angel, albeit one that wakes up at 4am from a cough, and then proceeds to sing loudly in her crib for a full hour while I lie awake in bed alternating between thankfulness that if she can sing, she can breathe, and a desire to [fill in the blank - you know you all can - you've been there too], so I can get some sleep.
8 comments:
Crappy is right. I hope the next week flies by and something not-serious-able-to-be-quickly-remedied is found by the scope. Best wishes to you both!
Oh, sounds awful! Hope you can find out what's causing it soon, and treat whatever it is...hang in there!
Well... bleh. Hope another week on the puffer brings more improvement.
And lack of sleep sucks... I suggest mainlining coffee.
What song is she singing? Something from Bon Jovi? Springsteen? or perhaps Anne Murray or even John Denver. I find the latter two very soothing.
LMFAO at the last line of this post. Not so much for the rest of it though. Please get well soon, Mak Daddy.
well, damn. and I know JUST what you mean about the sleep deprivation feeling worse as it gets better. I'm able to sustain it while it's happening, but as soon as I get ONE good night's sleep, I'm freakin' EXHAUSTED. and then it takes me a week of good sleeps to recover. blech.
crossing fingers and toes for the 2-week treatment to get you when you need to be for scoping...
Crap. I'm sorry. My little sister spent a lot of time in a "croup tent" in the hospital as a little kid. She's fine now. She gets bronchitis more often than most, but I'm quite sure that is attributable to her 15 years of hard-core smoking.
Sending good thoughts your way. Makeda looks gorgeous as always! Make sure you take care of yourself and take breaks ... ask for help!
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