911 Scare

At 5:05 a.m. last Saturday, I bolted upright.  What was that noise, I thought.  Within an instant, I realized it was Hailey.  She was sleeping on the pull-out with her brothers.  I thought maybe one of them had rolled on top of her.  I scooped her up and sat on the edge of the bed and prayed that she would calm down and the noise would stop.  It was an alarmingly loud gasping sound and her heart was raising.  Hailey couldn't breathe.  I thought maybe she was having an allergic reaction, but she wasn't calm enough for us to give her benadryl or ibuprofen to reduce swelling and it didn't appear we had enough time for the medicine to work.  I called 911, but the operator didn't take much information...just that my daughter couldn't breathe and our room number.  Within a few minute, an entourage of people arrived at our room and Hailey was turning purple.  The doctor told the nurse we didn't have time and told me to carry Hailey to the clinic.  It seemed to take only a few seconds for us to get to the bottom floor of the ship, but I know it happened slower.  Once there, they put on an oxygen mask and attached a pulse ox monitor.  Her initial pulse ox was 82 and her heart rate was 177.  For those of you who don't know about pulse ox...they wouldn't let her leave the NICU until it was in the mid 90s.  Shortly after, she started breathing treatments.  She wasn't happy and we had to do some restraining, but she finished it and started to calm down and started to look better.  We proceeded with a 2nd treatment and she started getting fiesty.  We started seeing a smile.  Hailey still flinched when any of them came near her, but she was partially cooperative (this is odd because at home she is fine with the nurses and doctors, but maybe that is because she is generally healthy when we go).  An IV was placed in her arm and she was given an antibiotic and a steroid.  An x-ray was performed on her right lung and confirmed what the doctor had suspected.  Hailey had pneumonia.

Round 2 of breathing treatments

Thankfully, Hailey responded quickly to the treatment the doctor tried.  Within an hour of arriving in the clinic, Hailey was a different child.  She asked the doctor for french fries and ketchup.  He called room service, but they refused and offered hash browns.  That wouldn't fly with her.   We offered her a raincheck until lunch.  Her pulse ox was at 98.  She gave the doctor a high 5 and we were headed back to our cabin for a nap.

Back at the room, ready to take a nap before breakfast

The doctor seemed extremely surprised that we had seen no symptoms with Hailey.  Honestly, the night before, she seemed to the be picture of health.  She ate dinner better than she had all week.  She had gone to the kids club by herself and had a great time.  My sister-in-law and mother-in-law had both seen her just a few minutes before she went to sleep and she was still cracking up at almost 11 p.m.  Look at these two pics...these were the evening before...she doesn't appear sick at all!

The doctor left the IV in her arm and wrapped it up in case she wouldn't take her next antibiotic orally later in the afternoon.  We headed to the clinic to get her ouchie taken care of.  Her heart rate was down to 114.  I apologized to the doctor for calling 911...worried that I should have called the nurse on call instead because there were a ton of people who arrived at our room.  The doctor calmly said, "No, you did exactly what you should have done.  She only had another 5 minutes left...maybe 10."  That is when it suddenly hit me.  We could have lost Hailey that day.  What if I hadn't heard her?  What if we wouldn't have called 911 when we did?  I was scared, but I didn't know we had come that close to losing her.  God was with us that morning.

The doctor explained that the muscles around her trachea were having spasms and were cutting off her air supply.  The more Hailey panicked, the faster the spasms were occurring.  Eventually, they would have cut off all of her air supply and she wouldn't have been able to take another breath.  We have zero clue why she had no symptoms prior, but thank God she responded to the treatments as quickly as she did.  Thank God the ship's doctor's acted quickly and knew what to do.  Thank God we weren't on one of the islands searching for medical treatment.  Thank goodness that it was our last day on the ship.  I can joke about it now...she ruined our two year healthy spurt (only a sinus infection for the last 2 years).

Here are pics of Hailey later that day...

She loves her cousin Shea

Who knew potatoes, broccoli and chicken were so funny

The girl loves pictures!