Monday, November 3, 2008

The 3am Bark

It took me a minute to realize the barking noise I heard in the wee hours of this morning were not the beagles. The beagles are not here anymore. It was coming from the girls rooms.

And then I heard the crying. The barky cry.

Poor Carys.

When she was 3.5 months old, we had to call the ambulance. She was not breathing well - she was turning blue. She scared us to death. We drove her to the nearest Children's ER - about a 15 minute drive, and she was diagnosed with croup. She was given steroids and kept for a few exhausting hours, in the tiniest little ER gown you've ever seen.

She's struggled with croup ever since.
I'm told from her pediatrician that some kids are just prone to it.

Over the years, I've figured out that steam doesn't help her - just cold air. So, we often bundle up on the deck in the wee hours of the morning. But last year, I think I only had to go outside with her once. She had very mild cases last year, and I thought she may have outgrown it. The pediatrician said she may - as her airway gets larger as she grows, she may just outgrow it.

She's almost five. And last night proved to me that she has not outgrown it.

She couldn't catch her breath. She was scaring herself because she's old enough, now, to realize something was wrong. I tried to calm her down, to help regulate her breathing.
She was gasping for breath, turning blue around her mouth...it was terrible. At one point, I told her that we needed to calm down and breathe slowly or I would have to take her to the hospital. She didn't like that idea at all, and tried so hard to pretend she was fine.
After about an hour of sitting on the deck with two very tired little girls (Cailyn heard the commotion and couldn't be left out!), Carys had finally drifted off to sleep with a sturdy wheeze.

I slept with them last night, so I could hear if Carys' breathing changed again. I cannot tell you how hard it is to sleep with these two girls. They kick. They talk in their sleep. They jockey for position as to who will be closest to Mommy.

SOooooo tired today.
Carys is feeling better. She still has the cough, but it's nothing like it was last night. Times like that scare me to death. I know my limits as Dr. Mommy, and if she hadn't gotten any better after an hour, we would've headed to the ER. I just hate taking in her in for steroid shots. She's five. She doesn't need steroids every time this happens. It can't be good for in the long run, you know what I mean?

I've been doing some research today, and I'm going to push for a pulminology test to rule out asthma. She's been diagnosed with allergies, she often coughs when she runs and plays. I'm thinking she may have respiratory issues, despite my past pleas for her to be tested.

Oh, never a dull moment in the Lanford house. Always something, always.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Girl! I sooo feel your pain. Hunter is almost 9 yrs and STILL gets the croup. He's gotten it every year since he was very little too. We actually keep some of the "good stuff" (aka liquid steriods) in the fridge for moments like those. We've tried the hot showers, the cold night air and we always end up at the doctors getting steriods.

We had him tested for allergies to see if we could figure out what exactly triggered it, but that didn't really rule out anything specific. Let me know if you do have her tested for asthma. Hope you have a better night!

~Kim

Anonymous said...

We experience the 3am bark very often at my house, with Chance, who also has allergy issues, sounds like there could be some connection to this.

Carla said...

Girl...I would have taken off a few hours of work today to keep the kids for you so you could take a nap. All the kids at school who bark like that have an inhaler.

Get better, Carys!...XOXOXOXO

Anonymous said...

That is so scary - we had to call an ambulance in June because Avery wasn't able to breathe and we didn't know what was wrong with her. Turned out it was croup. I hope that Carys can outgrow it soon! HUGS!

Anonymous said...

HOPE SHE IS FEELING BETTER THIS EVENING, THAT CAN BE VERY UOSETTING.

MEMAW & POPPY