Update on Averly

Well, we got good news and bad. Not out of the woods. Man, this is exhausting. Had Averly's third doctor appointment this morning. A followup. We noticed she had more trouble breathing the past 24 hours or so. Coughing sounded more productive though. Its so much. They checked he oxygen level. Got up to around 96% which is still low even when you're sick. So they did another xray. She doesn't like that table. I don't blame her. The good news: the bacterial pneumonia isn't as concentrated as it was. It has spread out a little and loosened up in her lungs. The bad news: she's not getting rid of it. They suggest another shot of antibiotic. One shot, meaning two, one in each leg. Poor girl has been stuck about eight times this week. Now she'll know why daddy doesn't like needles either. They prescribe her two more oral antibiotics and an inhaled steroid (flovent) twice a day to easy the swelling in the lungs to see if that will help her clear it out. So, let's see what our baby girl is on now..... rotate ibuprofen and tylenol every four hours to help with pain and keep the fever from returning, albuterol nebulizer every four to six hours to help keep the pneumonia broken up, an oral steroid once a day for five days, two antibiotics once a day for 10 days, and flovent inhaler twice a day. It sucks, you find yourself getting angry but no place to direct it. Lack of sleep doesn't help either. She's lost about a half a pound because when she eats, she starts to cough and won't finish. Averly also has an ear infection on top of that. That has the doctor worried since she's pumped full of antibiotics and steroids and she still gets an infection??? So, Monday we have yet another visit to our doctor to see how things have progressed. They are hopefully going to be able to do some blood work then. Tuesday is when we see the pediatric pulmonologist to do a bronchial test at Children's. That's where we are now. Averly still smiles and plays, but she still isn't comfortable wheezing and coughing everywhere. I hate it.