Pneumonia

This is our little trooper in the waiting room at the doctor's office. We finally got a smile when we pulled out the iPhone.

We've had one sick girl at our house the last couple of days. It started with a happy girl on Monday with a 99-100 degree fever. By Tuesday morning, it was a 102 degree fever & a bit of a cough. By Tuesday afternoon, it was a pitiful girl who didn't want to play, couldn't keep her eyes open, with a 103 degree fever that wouldn't go down & a cough that sounded like something was rattling in her chest. We took her to the doctor Tuesday afternoon. We knew something was wrong when the nurse took one listen to her chest & left the room to talk to the doctor. They immediately sent her for a chest x-ray before we even got to see the doctor. 

It's pneumonia.

Luckily we caught it early & we were able to go home with antibiotics. They said her fever could stick around for a couple days & the cough would definitely stick around for a while. We didn't really anticipate how bad it would get that night before the antibiotics kicked in. It was absolutely heartbreaking to see her with just no energy, wanting to just be held. Her cough was more sporadic than frequent, but when she coughed it sounded awful & then she would cry because it was clearly hurting her. Her fever was down to 101 at the doctor, but went back to 103 by the time we put her in bed. She woke up frequently after we put her to bed. We kept going in & comforting her & giving her Pedialyte & checking her temperature. She would sleep when we put her back down, but then she'd wake up after 45 minutes to an hour.

This is her "I just coughed & it hurt & I'm about to cry" face.

Finally around midnight, her fever broke. She woke up crying one last time & we took her in the bathroom to do a steam shower & try to clear up her chest. Her temperature was down to 99.5 degrees and she coughed a couple times & it seemed to clear her up a little bit. After that, she slept until 7:30am! 

She's been happier today. Still not wanting to play much, but she did play a little. She mainly just wanted to be held, but her fever didn't go over 100.5 all day! Her cough sounds horrible still and you can hear the congestion in her chest when she's breathing. Overall, though, we're through the bad part. Antibiotics are working! We're just very thankful that we caught it early. We know it could have been much worse. God definitely comforted all of us & got us through it! 

Moral of the story for you to take with you: if your little one has a high fever & a bad sounding cough, go to the doctor ASAP. I'm so happy we didn't wait!