Last night I was online, on facebook specifically, while the kids were reading and having a calm evening after a full day of fun. Suddenly I started seeing status updates about smoke and fire. I went outside and could not see the Sandia's, there was thick smoke everywhere and a haze over our entire neighborhood. I ran back into the house to shut off the swamp cooler, close the windows, and check Alorah. Alorah's pulse-ox was low. 88% and her pulse was high (low oxygen+high heart rate is a good sign of respiratory distress). I had her do her peak flow and it confirmed that she needed intervention. She did a neb and got up to 92% (her pulse always goes up with albuterol so it is not noteworthy after a neb, unless it got over 250 or something crazy). I got a hold of her pediatrician for advice. My instincts said to start steroids but I hate starting them and I don't do it lightly...however I also know how fast Alorah can go from 'stable' to NOT stable. He said to absolutely start them so I put her on them and I also put her on Vospire (an oral form of albuterol). She needed a neb at 3am and another one at 10am, she has two doses of steroids on board so hopefully they take over soon and we can go back to once/day nebs. She is bouncing off the walls and we are stuck inside with no air conditioning. I hope this smoke clears out soon, it is not nearly as thick as it was yesterday but there is a definite haze. I am so thankful that we were not outdoors when it rolled in, I do not even want to think about how she would have reacted to breathing it in directly (versus what came in through the swamp cooler, which wasn't much-I could not even smell it in the house). I have never seen anything like that in my life. The smoke was so thick, kind of a grim reaper vibe to it. Yuck!
Here are some guidelines from the American Lung Association.
Most of all common sense!
My throat is sore and my eyes stung right after I went outside to see what was going on, but that is nothing compared to what forest fire smoke can do to an asthmatic, someone with allergies, and people with cardiac problems (as well as small kiddos and elderly).
We made it 9 weeks without steroids.
That's a long time for Alorah these days.
2 comments:
Just found the blog.. please get in touch as soon as possible, a group of us are very concerned and would really like to touch base.
I'm on facebook as Ari Wellman, and hope to hear from you very soon.
Ari,
There is no way to message you, or Rick, on facebook. You have the "message" button disabled (probably set to friends only). I messaged Adam, ask him to check his messages for some info.
Also he has my fb now and you can message me if you like (I am not under P, I am under my maiden name and would rather not post that on this blog)
Post a Comment