We got to the hospital, signed in, filled out some paper work...and waited...and waited...and waited. Finally, at 2:45am, we were admitted to emergency, and the diagnostics began. They put a blood oxygen saturation monitor on her toe, listened to her heart and lungs, checked her ears (determined she had double ear infections - yikes), and asked us what seemed like a million questions. The Doctor on staff told us that her blood oxygen saturation level was pretty low at 83%, and that he wanted to do some nebulizer treatments to see if that helped get it back up to the high 90's.
So...we put the mask on Hannah...and she fought it. I had no idea just how strong she was. It took 3 people, myself (holding her on my lap and the mask to her face), Michael (holding her legs still) and the nurse (holding her head straight - as she would turn it into my chest so the mask wouldn't stay on) just to get her through the first of three nebulizer treatments. She was soooo mad! I've never seen her so upset, and as a mom, it broke my heart...but was necessary because she was so sick. She wasn't as resistant during the second treatment, and I started to sing songs, and tell stories. By the end of the third treatment, Hannah was telling us how she was just like Puff the Magic Dragon (blowing smoke out of her nose) and that Puff was a green Dragon, and she was a blue dragon with pink wings...If anyone can sew really well...I would LOVE to get my hands on a blue girl dragon with pink wings. :) Thanks.
Despite the lengthy breathing treatments, her oxygen saturation level still remained at 83%, so the Doctor decided to send Hannah in for a chest x-ray. More fun times. She didn't want to take her shirt off - I imagine that was because she was still running a fever and was still cold...on top of just being scared. The x-ray tech called in another tech, who helped me to hold Hannah still for her x-rays. By the time we got back to the ER, Hannah's doctor had already seen the x-rays (thanks to the new digital x-ray system the hospital had installed a few years ago) and had determined that she had pneumonia in the lower lobe of her right lung.
Back to the bed she went. The nurse came in shortly with her first dose of super-strength Amoxacillin...to which Hannah protested, and refused to take by herself. Nurses don't like it when children fight taking their medication. Ask me...my mom is a nurse...I know first hand. And Hannah learned that lesson last night too. When she refused, the nurse took the syringe in her hand, tilted Hannah's head back and started to force feed her the medication, which Hannah promptly spit out everywhere - it was like watching a hot pink water fountain in slow motion. The four of us were covered in strawberry flavored Amoxacillin spit mixed splatter. After that brilliant show, I took the syringe w/ remaining medication from the nurse, looked sternly at Hannah and said "Hannah, you need to take this medicine, or we can't go home. Do you want to go home to Hannah's house?" She replied "uh huh (yes)". "Then you need to be a big girl and swallow all of this strawberry medicine". She sobbed some blubbery tears while she considered her situation, and then slowly opened her mouth in submission. At that moment, I learned something new...Even at 4am you can reason with a 2 year old!
Just when she thought she was in the clear, the nurse came back with more torture...a suction thingie, a little oxygen mask (with the two pieces that go up your nose) and another nurse (aka...back-up). I sighed...this was going to be fun. The minute Hannah saw the nurse, she started to freak out. She really really didn't like this nurse. I can't blame her. The nurse explained to me that she needed to take a suction/sample of nasal mucous to send to pathology (to see what kind of infections she had growing up there), and then she needed to wear the oxygen mask to help get more oxygen into her system. Okay...whatever...just get it over with. So the helper nurse sat at Hannah's head and held it still. I held Hannah's body, and Major Nurse stuck a long tube down Hannah's nose to collect the sample. Oh My Gosh...not a happy camper. Then, while holding Hannah down, Major Nurse put little stickers on Hannah the apples of Hannah's cheeks which would hold the nasal oxygen tube in place. Then came the real torture device, the oxygen mask, which Hannah fought harder than the nebulizer treatments.
But at this point, the fight didn't last long because she was so tired. I sat on the bed with Hannah, and held her in my arms until she fell asleep, which wasn't more than 15 minutes. Poor baby. She fell asleep at 5am and slept straight through two vital checks (temperature, heart & lung w/ stethoscope, and two blood pressure cuff checks). I have never seen her sleep so heavily before. She slept until 8:30am when Grandma and Grandpa came by for a surprise visit.
Grandma and Grandpa stayed for nearly 4 hours with us while we were still in the tiny emergency room - room (the pediatric emergency room has individual rooms with sliding glass doors - it was quite nice). The Doctor had told us earlier that we would likely be kept for another day for observation, so we were just waiting around for a private room (necessary because of Hannah's pneumonia). But just before Noon, Hannah's pediatrician came in and checked up on us. She said that Hannah had made marked improvement since she came in last night (no longer on oxygen as she was now up to about 95% on her own, was eating and drinking and had produced a wet diaper) and was okay to go home as long as I could get her to continue taking medications. We were glad, said 'Thank you' and got ready to go home. Hannah reluctantly took one more dose of hospital issued amoxacillin, and then we packed up and headed out.
Almost ready to go home. Poor girl.
We are home now, just taking it easy. In the last 24 hours, she has only had one fever and is starting to get back to her normal self. Horray.
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