The last several days have been a mixed bag…and very busy…with
no time to write…so I will try to do a brief recap.
Saturday – Our daughter was scheduled for a business trip…to
a retreat 4 hours away. She was supposed to leave on Sunday morning, so we
decided to go to her house to keep our granddaughter while she was away. We
normally keep her at our house when her mom is out of town…but this time I was
scheduled for the early shift on Monday at my job…which meant that my husband
would take Punky to pre-school on his way to work…and our daughters house is
closer to pre-school than ours is. So, we packed up bag and baggage and both of
our dachshunds…and headed across town to stay for the next three nights and
four days. Punky is asthmatic…so anytime
she gets the sniffles…there is the potential for worse…and she was sniffling on
Saturday evening. She was also very excited that “Pa Da” (she calls grandpa “Pa”
and as a toddler called me “Da”…which has now changed to “gramma”. But when she
refers to the two of us together…it is “Pa Da”)…were coming to spend several
nights at her house.
Sunday – Punky awoke with a very runny nose, but no
coughing. Our daughter left around 10:30 a.m. for her trip. It was pouring rain…so
we decided to stay in and dry. We played
games and watched “The Princess and the Frog” and several episodes of “Spiderman”.
Late in the afternoon, the rain stopped and the sun came out! The temperature
was almost 70. Our son and his partner called and asked if we wanted to meet
for dinner. We met them at TGIFriday’s a couple hours later, then went back
home and had baths and went to bed early (Punky’s bedtime is 8:00 P.M.).
Monday – Punky woke up at 3:30 Monday morning coughing…and
coughed continually. I went to work until 11:30, and Pa stayed with her…then I
came home and he went to work until 5:00. We gave her extra inhalers, cough
meds, allergy meds, Tylenol…lots of fluids…and kept her very quiet (movies,
play doh, naps, etc.). By Monday evening, she seemed to be improving a bit…but
shortly before bedtime, she told me that “her breath was gone”…which is what
she says when she isn’t getting a full breath. So I got the oxygen meter and
checked…sure enough her oxygen level was staying 90-94. If it is above 90…we
are not in an emergency…but at 95 it is still low. Below 90…means breathing
treatments ASAP (at best) or emergency room (at worst). I began texting back
and forth with my daughter about the low readings…and continued taking readings
even after Punky fell asleep. They finally stabilized around 94. I turned off
the light and lay down next to her…and for the next several hours…listened to
her breathing…felt her back/chest for rattling…and prayed for her to get good
breaths. She slept through the night with no coughing…and I eventually fell
asleep…waking often to check her breathing.
Tuesday – I awoke Tuesday morning at 5:30…to my daughter’s
dog needing out. Our two dogs were sleeping in the guest room with my husband…and
our daughter’s dog was sleeping in the room with Punky and me. I got up to let
him out…and realized that he had pooped several times during the night…right…
square… in the doorway. I began to clean it up very quietly…trying not to wake
Punky. Just as I finished cleaning and opened the door to let the dog (Dudley)
out…Punky woke up. I jogged to the kitchen and put him outside…jogged back to
the bedroom and lay back down to see how Punky was feeling…and she sat up and
began to cough…non-stop. I comforted her for a bit… and carried her to the
living room and got her settled on the couch with a pillow and blanket…and administered
both inhalers and gave her a drink of water.
About that time my husband came in…with our two dogs
trailing behind him. I let the dogs outside and grabbed my phone…texted my
supervisor that I would not be in…and went to let the dogs all in. Punky’s cough
continued unabated…and her oxygen was down to 93…so I retrieved the nebulizer
and began to assemble it for a breathing treatment. As I was working on the
nebulizer, Punky sneezed…and I looked up to see snot literally covering her
mouth and chin. I ran into the living room and grabbed some Kleenex. As I
pulled the Kleenex from the box…I noticed out of the corner of my eye that one
of our dogs (Winnie) had pooped next to the rocking chair immediately after coming back in
the house. I cleaned Punky’s face up…calmed her down…and began to clean
up the new “field of poop”. As I was scrubbing the carpet with a wet rag…I
heard a gagging sound and turned to see our other dog (Doc) vomiting on the
kitchen floor.
I must say…at this point…I was torn between wanting to
escape…and yearning for a giant margarita.
My husband was in the kitchen trying to assemble the
nebulizer for me…without much success. I suggested that he google “assembling
nebulizer facemask”….so he googled the name and serial number instead…and came
up with a parts list. After a couple more unsuccessful attempts…he declared
that he needed to get to work…and left… (I found his hasty departure funny
later…but at the time…not so much).
Eventually, I did get the poop/vomit/snot all taken care of…assembled
the nebulizer…and took Punky’s oxygen level again and found that it had risen
to 94.
Over the course of the morning, we played quietly, took
meds, and I disassembled the nebulizer…thinking that we would not need it…but
left it on the table just in case. Our daughter skipped her last session of the
trip and headed home to be with Punky.
When Mom arrived, we ate a bite of lunch, I updated her on
how things were going, then I went to work around 1:30 p.m. When I got off at
5:00, I headed back to their house to see how things were going…and they had
worsened. We gave Punky a breathing treatment, broke the oxygen meter, and had
to go after another one. By the time we got the new meter home…the treatment
had helped and oxygen was up to 98.
I packed up both of our dogs and headed home (where my
husband had gone when he got off work at 5:00). However, a storm had blown in…and
as I loaded the car…it was pouring rain. We live about 20 miles away, so I got
on the elevated highway (the quickest route) and realized …a bit too late… that
it was raining so hard that I could not see…so I got off at the next exit…and
proceeded to take surface roads. Everything was fine for several miles…but as I
approached the downtown area…the roads were flooding, and I drove for the next
3-4 miles very slowly (5 mph)…trying not to stall out. So…I returned to the
elevated highway…and drove 40 MPH…on a 60 MPH road all the way home. I’m sure
that if anyone had been able to see/hear our trip home…they would have assumed
that I was insane. I was terrified…and could not see the lines on the road…or
the guard rails on either side. I began to talk out loud…reassuring myself that
I was doing fine…reminding me to focus on the occasional road markings…and
repeating “You got this!”
I finally reached home a bit after 9:00 p.m.…ate a few bites
of turkey…took a hot shower and a valium…and hit the bed!
Wednesday - Punky did great all night, and went in to work
with her mom this morning until about 10:45. At that point…she was running
around like a crazed 4 year old…and her oxygen was holding at 98…so mom took
her to pre-school for ½ day and nap time.
Hopefully the rest of the week will be much calmer…but you
never know!
