December 28, 2015
Selah Juney is a poor little sick baby. She coughed all night last night. Jeremy said he didn’t fall asleep until 5:45am. This thing first got her on the same day as his surgery — Dec. 11. It’s been quite a long haul. Between her sickness and Jeremy’s surgery, I’m tuckered out.
Mom went with me to SJ’s doctor’s appointment. And thank goodness she did! The doctor had me do a breathing treatment on her with no supervision or assistance, and it was a harrowing and miserable experience. She screamed through the entire treatment. I had to start the treatment by myself because Mom had to step out to take a call from Dad. SJ just writhed and fought me, pushing the mask away and turning her head violently to keep me from covering her nose and mouth. It was awful. She turned bright red. Mom came back and helped me hold her down. Eventually, she gave in to the procedure and ultimately drifted off in Grammy’s arms. Her little bottom lip revealed a poor broken-hearted sadness that just killed me. Her spirit had been defeated, and her trust in me violated. Uggggghhhhh…. It was plain awful.
Then, once the treatment was over, she opened her eyes. Her pupils were expanding and contracting, and she gave me this strange distant look. I freaked out (broke out in hives as proof) and ran out to ask anybody who would listen at the nurse’s station whether an allergic reaction was a possibility. They treated me with such condescension it made my skin crawl. But they did come in and check her pulse. Apparently, dilating pupils is a possible side effect and elevated heart rate is as well. You think they could have told me that before we started the whole darn thing. The doctor said she has an ear infection in one ear, fluid behind the other, and a case of bronchiolitis. She also might be showing signs of asthma.
Eventually, I made it home with a bag full of drugs and a machine to do breathing treatments at home. Oh goody… After dinner and bath time and some play, Jeremy and I geared up for the event — treatment before bed. She was an unbelievably perfect, sweet, calm angel. She slept through most of it. And she liked the taste of the antibiotic and took it straight down like a champ.
She’s in there coughing now and I’m afraid we aren’t out of the woods yet, but maybe we’re on the road to recovery. I’m tired.
To keep from ending so sadly, here’s a fun little video of SJ’s first visit to Sephora. Mom had to return something, and SJ had to dance.
