roller coaster big bad asthma

We went to see Alorah's ped today for another follow-up (we really should rent a room..sheesh!). She was holding steady at 97% off O2 while we were there. We took her off and she did pretty good most of the day. At 2:30 she started to retract so we did a neb. 4:30 and she was still retracting so we did another neb. 5:30 her resp. rate was 42 and she was still retracting. Put her back on 1/2 liter of O2 and her breathing calmed and deepened. So, she is back on it. The Steroid Monster has also reared it's ugly head. The whiney, weepy, loud, HUNGRY, stinker monster is here for the next few days at least. She takes her last dose of steroids tonight and the balloon affect will last for quite a few days after. I could so do without the stinking Steroid Monster. She has an endless appetite. It's exhausting in and of itself. I was hoping she would be able to stay off the oxygen but she started to decompensate and it was pretty clear she needed it back, pronto. I thought she (and Steroid Monster) were going to freak OUT about going back on the oxygen but thankfully she was fine with it and told me she felt much better after it kicked in. Thankful she didn't put up a fight.

Amy, you asked about rooms. We have 3 major hospitals here. Including Children's. All of them are way past full. At our hospital (the one we have ins. through and my kids were all born) they had to put kids in the mother-baby care unit and use up most of their rooms on top of the picu rooms. There are absolutely no rooms for kids :( My doc told me today that he had to admit an 8 week old yesterday and he called every hospital and no one could take him so they ended up being stuck in overflow in the ER...can you imagine how much that would suck!!! Makes me very thankful that we can manage Alorah at home. Yes, it is stressful. Yes, it is scary. However I've been doing this asthma stuff for 6 years so I feel well-equiped to cope. If this had happened when she was first diagnosed....HECK NO! I would have freaked out. Vance was on oxygen at home for 5 weeks after he was born so we aren't new to it, we are new to having to treat Alorah's asthma with such drastic measures though and that is never easy or fun. We are all hanging in there. Faith is with my mom and Vance is with Levi's mom still, and thankfully they are both doing very well being away from home. Alorah needs rest and she needs calm and she absolutely needs our full attention so we are very blessed to be able to have our wonderful families step in and help us during this stressful time.