Our new friend.... Pneumonia

The twins have now branched out in their illnesses. I think I was getting a little too comfortable with what they are usually sick with, so something new had to be added in. They first got sick Monday, March 7 with croup. If you know Tate and Trey at all you know that them having croup is like paying bills every month. It comes at the beginning of every month and there is nothing you can do to stop it. This bout of croup, however, was particularly awful. I was constantly in the bathroom steaming them to open their airways. I restricted everyone's hot water use to ensure I would be able to steam them at any given moment.

By Thursday all my methods for treating croup were not working. This usually means they have bronchiolitis, which is basically the croup has moved into their lungs. This usually requires breathing treatments and occasionally going to see a respiratory therapist at the hospital. The majority of the time they get croup it is followed with bronchilitis. Basically nothing new, I thought. Although there was one thing that was out of the ordinary. They had fevers that I couldn't control.

I took them in to see their doctor Thursday, because I figured they probably had ear infections on top of it all and that is what was casing their fevers. Their pediatrician found double ear infections in both of them. Their breathing was not great and he told me if their fevers didn't break overnight we were probably dealing with pneumonia.

Low and behold, Tate's fever didn't break. Trey's did. Tate was a steady 103 degrees all night long. I took Tate to the doctor Friday, he immediately sent me to the hospital to do x-rays. Also, Tate had no desire to eat or drink. I couldn't get anything in him.  So after the x-ray, which showed pneumonia in both lungs, we were off to pediatrics to hydrate him and monitor his breathing and give him a HUGE dose of antibiotics.

After about 8 hours, they let Tate come home. He was hydrated enough for the night and his breathing was sufficient. Friday night Trey's fever returned. I took them both in Saturday morning. Trey also has pneumonia, but not as sever as Tate. They are breathing good enough to stay out of the hospital and I am still on an endless quest to keep them hydrated. They both have bacterial pneumonia, which is just treated through antibiotics.

Tate with his IV. It took about an hour and a half to get it in.
He was so dehydrated his veins collapsed the second they poked it.

We are now almost sleeping through the night. Breathing better everyday and it isn't such a chore to get them to drink. I think the end of pneumonia is in sight! Somehow I feel though, that Friday was not the last time we will see the pediatrics floor. Tate and Trey were born six weeks early and I was aware it meant their lungs would be under developed. I just had no idea what kind of effect that was going to have for years to come. They most likely have asthma on top of everything which keeps causing all these horrible respiratory problems. Sadly, you can't give a firm diagnosis until they are around three or four years old, but everything we do to treat their illness as the same as treating asthma.

So with our illness for March almost over, I sit patiently waiting to see what illness April will bring.