Last year, on this day, My Sweet Harper was admitted to the hospital with RSV. She was so tiny, only 5 precious weeks old. RSV is a nasty virus that causes high temps, and severe cold symptoms; with her being so young it made her breathing very labored, and her oxygen levels were low. I took her to Children's in St. Paul, MN. We were admitted and told that we had probably come though the worst of it, but they'd keep her overnight just to be cautious...we ended up staying for 5 days.
Harper got worse the first night in the hospital, and it was the worst night of my life. It was difficult to feel so helpless as a parent, and protective, and emotional, and alone (my husband was home with our son), I could go on and on. If I close my eyes, I am right back there again.
Harper steadily improved and we were released from the hospital with a still coughing and stuffy daughter. Unfortunately, we returned to the Children's ER 5 times from February to June for breathing issues. Basically, kids who get RSV so young suffer from asthma (although it's called RAD [reactive airway disorder] since asthma isn't diagnosed until age 2). Some grow out of it, and some don't. We're hoping Harper will!
I have two reasons for writing today. One, I needed to recognize this day in some form, and two, I wanted to share some advice. I now have a small taste of how life is with a child that has a chronic condition. My son was always "healthy as a horse" as they say, and I really took it for granted. So here comes the advice part:
- Never take your child's health for granted, good health is a blessing
- If you know someone who has a child with a chronic condition, offer support in any way you can. It's very stressful. Medications, sleepless nights, doctor visits, doctor bills, etc. It can wear you out!
- Offer support to parents with a hospitalized child-Living in a hospital room is not easy. My husband and I took turns, but also because I was nursing-it was mostly me. We were just not comfortable leaving her alone at all. So if you can offer to bring clothes/toiletries for the parent or child, or a care package with snacks so they can avoid the cafeteria and vending machines.
- Offer to care for their other child(ren)...besides seeing my daughter so sick, it was heart breaking to be away from my son Jack. To know that he was getting extra TLC from family and our daycare provider made me a little more at ease.
Well, staying at home has also led me to some new endeavors, so this is how our life will stay for a while at least-one lucky mama!
(photo by JR Photography, from Harper's 1 year pictures)
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