Our run in with the RSV virus

05/30/2013

Just before my little man turned 2 months old, he was diagnosed with the RSV (Respiratory syncytial virus).

I remember it started with a cough on a Wednesday afternoon, by Friday his breathing was very exaggerated.  I thought, it’s a cold, he’ll be okay.  Finally Saturday morning I was starting to get concerned.  I called Tele-Health and they said given his age, he should be checked out.  I went to a walk in clinic.  It was a busy Saturday afternoon and  I was initially told I had a 45 minute wait.   Then my son’s name was called next.  They have a policy that babies are seen right away.  If I’m ever not sure again, I won’t hesitate to go.  The doctor checked him out and told me to go to Emergency because he wanted a chest x-ray.  He told me it could be asthma, bronchitis or phenomena.   So, now I’m starting to panic.

We went to Emergency and of course my son was is a good mood, smiling away and didn’t appear sick.  The doctor just said oh, you’re a new mom, he’s fine and just told me to keep doing saline.

The next day he seemed worse.  I thought about it all day and we went back to the hospital at 8pm.  I had to fight to get his chest x-ray and they finally hooked him up to monitor his breathing.  They thought he was kicking off the sensors that was monitoring his breathing saturation.  Finally at 2am they realized he needed to be hooked up to oxygen and was admitted.  Since RSV is highly contagious, we had our own private room.  There is no medicine for RSV.  He still fed well, so he didn’t have to be hooked up to an IV.  We just had to wait it out and ended up staying there for 4 days!  I had to stay with him since I am breastfeeding (not that I would have left anyways).  I slept in a pulled out chair and my husband had to bring me meals.  I didn’t get hospital meals, because I wasn’t a patient, even though I didn’t have much of a choice.  Luckily for us, it didn’t progress into anything worse.  It was very sad seeing him hooked up to a bunch of monitors, but I knew he was in good hands.  He really enjoyed the Fisher Price aquarium on his crib.  Once we were discharged, I still had to stay home with him for almost 2 weeks.

You can tell if they are having a hard time breathing if their nostrils are flaring.  He was breathing so deeply, I could see his ribs.  He is pretty chunky, so that is hard to do!

I realized how important it is to wash my hands and to have others wash their hands before they touch him.  A simple cold for us, is so much worse for them.  I’m also very cautious about where I take him and keep hand sanitizer in my diaper bag.   You should avoid kissing your baby if you have cold symptoms (I know this might be hard!)  Beware of crowds and public places.  You never know where a virus might be!