RSV

Ellery crawled over the top of Emily one too many times...

RSV is in the house.....I'm not too happy about this. The girls have had colds for the last few days and they have progressively gotten worse. They have horrible hacking coughs and poor little Em has a little wheeze - but not the high pitched wheeze they told me to look for....it's a low pitch which is apparently just as bad. But, they've been super happy, eating, sleeping, no fevers so I was hoping it really was just a little cold.

Andy took the girls into the peed today just to make sure everything was ok and our Dr confirmed that Em has a mild case of RSV. Ellery is technically not there yet, but honestly how can she not develop it. They drool on the same toys, breath & sneeze on each other, and take each other's bottles so it's only a matter of days. She has everything but the wheeze - but since she's always been bigger and stronger maybe it will be a little easier for her to kick the virus.

Luckily because we've been taking the girls in for the $30,000 shots (a year of college tuition or how much I made at my first job out of college!!!) they seem to be the reason why the girls only have mild cases of RSV. Remember, my earlier posts said the shots only helped minimize the symptoms to decrease the possibility of hospitalization it doesn't protect or vaccinate them from the virus.

I'm annoyed because we've been living like hermits avoiding public places, crowds, large family parties, and only going to daycare 2 days a week or Dr. appointments but yet, they still end up with RSV. Yes daycare is a risk, but there are only a few other babies and none of them have been sick nor have the teachers. It's impossible to trace where they picked it up. But, unlike normal germs that die once they hit solid surface or after a period of time - the RSV germ basically saturates everything and is active for 6 hours. Even with lots of hand washing if you have been exposed and you touch the faucet, door, ect....it's still live and kicking. I start thinking about all the little germs floating around....ew!!!

I hope, hope, hope that we continue to only have mild cases of RSV. Our Dr seemed pretty confident that it should remain pretty tame, but of course we need to keep a close eye on the girls. We're giving them albuterol breathing treatments and it's hilarious to try to get them to breath with the contraption that fits over the inhaler. It's supposed to go over their mouth and nose so they can inhale it but both girls either start smiling, opening their mouths, or trying to lick the inside of the contraption. We need to get better at this - it's the only thing that can help. There's no cure for RSV - just have to hold tight until it passes. They said the girls should be good as new in 10-15 days. When exactly did that countdown begin? Today....5 days ago when they runny noses started?

Oh, and they haven't been in daycare since a week from Wednesday. They were sent home on that last Wednesday for having the "runs" but I actually never saw evidence of that. I was sure the alleged incident was due to the introduction of yogurt to their systems but then two days later the runny noses started, they were really crabby over the weekend, and then on Monday the hacking cough started. So we've missed almost two weeks of daycare - we only go two days but still! I'm imagining we may miss one or both next week which means in the month of January the girls will have attended 4 days of daycare. Same thing for December. Yikes, thank goodness they aren't in full time daycare or I'd be even more annoyed.

Ellery says yummo!