RSV

That stands for: Respiratory syncytial virus. 

I have heard of RSV, but never knew much about it or how serious it could be. That is, until I was told Savannah had RSV.

In this post, I was so excited about finding a way to get rid of Savannah's cough and ended the post with how happy I was on that Monday. 

But then, Tuesday came and that is where this post begins.

Tuesday, March 1:

Savannah had a low grade fever on Monday night, but it was gone by this morning. I took her to her MDO school as usual and she coughed a bit more than she had in the past few days. I was concerned, but pretty sure it didn't have anything to do with her eating gluten foods because it had been 5 days since she first had gluten. When I picked her up from school, I asked my normal "Did she eat well? Did she nap very long?" etc. The teacher told me that Savannah did not nap well because she was coughing really bad. 

I could see it in the teacher's face. It wasn't just a normal cough.

As soon as I loaded Savannah in my car, I called Caleb and told him what the teacher had said. I told him that I really though something else must be going on because I didn't think it was the gluten allergy this time. He agreed and suggested I call her pediatrician to get Savannah seen as soon as possible.

The doctor was out of the office the rest of that day, so the appointment was scheduled for the following morning at 9:30.

Her fever of 101 degrees returned tonight just before bed.

Wednesday, March 2:

We didn't have to wait to long to be seen by the doctor and she took notes as I explained what we had dealt with for the past 5 months with the gluten allergy. I told her about the laser treatment Savannah had the week before and all the other symptoms (fever, runny nose, etc).

The two possible causes that the doctor suspected were 1) RSV or 2) the Flu. As she explained to me what RSV was, she also told me (with a serious look on her face) that they treat RSV in young children very aggressively because it can be extremely serious and even cause children this young to be admitted to the hospital.

I immediately became very concerned and upset that I didn't know that Savannah could be that sick!

The doctor left the room and sent in a nurse to test Savannah for RSV. That involved Savannah laying on her back screaming, me holding her arms/hands down while the nurse put an over-sized Q-Tip up Savannah's nose as far as possible on each side.

It would take about 15 minutes for the test results to be in, so in the mean time, the nurse brought in a breathing treatment machine for me to use on Savannah. In the event that Savannah did in fact have RSV, I would need to know how to do these breathing treatments with her. The nurse showed me how to put the liquid medicine into the tube, assembled the mask and then placed it on Savannah's face.

Savannah freaked out. 

Savannah was crying. I was on the verge of crying. The nurse kept telling me to hold Savannah's hands down. The machine made a pretty loud noise. I didn't think I was going to be able to handle this. I thought, "how is my baby so sick that I have to put this mask on her face and listen to her cry like this?" Once things got started, the nurse told me the treatment would take approximately 5 minutes and then left the room. Within 60 seconds of her leaving, Savannah calmed down and finished the treatment just fine.

The test results came back positive for RSV. At that point, we had to wait to an outside company bring us our own $175.00 machine to take home. I was instructed to do these breathing treatments on Savannah four times a day approximately 3 hours apart. I was not looking forward to this. 

The machine and mask:

The doctor told me that RSV usually last for 5 days (even with treatment) before it improves. Not only that, but it would most likely even get worse before it got better. She counted Monday as day one since that is when Savannah first had a fever. Therefore, it would be Saturday before Savannah showed signs of improvement. The doctor also told me that Savannah might be just fine within a week or it could take up to a month!

Savannah ran a low-grade fever again on Wednesday night and coughed a lot. I felt terrible for her, but was thankful that we were getting treatment for her and keeping her out of the hospital.

Thursday and Friday were long days and Savannah really acted like she didn't feel good. For the breathing treatments, she would whine when I started to get it ready and say "no, no". I just held her on the couch and let her watch her favorite show, Curious George. Once we got started, she would sit still just fine and when we were finished, she would clap her hands and say "YAY!!"

Saturday, we had a our sweet and happy little girl back! Her cough had improved greatly and she was playing and laughing as usual. We decided to back her breathing treatments down to just three times a day and by Tuesday, we stopped doing the treatments altogether.

Wednesday, March 9: Her cough was GONE! 

Finally. For the first time since September 2010 (over 6 months), I was able to say that Savannah did not have a cough. Between taking care of her gluten allergy and getting her well from RSV, my little girl no longer coughs and I couldn't be more thankful.