So our sweet little buddy was diagnosed with RSV on Sunday. It was a long, long day first starting at Urgent Care, then ending at the ER in downtown Ft. Worth. The doctor prescribed him with Albuterol to be taken with a nebulizer and Prednisone to take orally and sent us on our merry way.
Have you ever experienced the side effects of these drugs? Oh My Gosh. The ER doc warned us that Kyle may become cranky or mean, but we didn't really think too much of it. I mean Kyle is not mean or cranky...he's totally happy and laid back.
Until...
The drugs kicked in. And boy did they kick in. While the doc told us about those side effects, he did not say anything about it making him looney toons, off the wall hyper. Kyle did not stop talking from about 8pm-10:30pm. I'm not kidding. He just gabbed and gabbed non-stop. Then he woke up at 2am, got another treatment, then yammered my ears off until almost 4am. Then he was up again at 7:30am bouncing off the walls! This lasted most of Monday. He was so ramped up, climbing and jumping all over the couches, saying non-sensical things, and I swear he was hallucinating at one point. The poor kid just had this wild look in his eyes. Of course, he didn't sleep at all and we couldn't get him down for bed until almost 9:30pm.
But wait, it doesn't stop there. That was just personality 1 of 3.
On to Tuesday. No more hyper, super energy Kyle. He became very irritable and crotchety...I guess you could call it his version of mean. Again, he had a look in his eyes. It wasn't wild...it was more glazed over. And nothing made him happy. He would ask for apple juice and when I got it, he'd get mad and say he wanted water. He'd ask for a sandwich, then wouldn't eat it. He wanted to go outside, then immediately wanted to come in. I should say that he never asked for anything...he demanded everything.
"Mommy, get some apple juice now!"
"Mommy, pick that up now!"
"Mommy, don't look at me now!"
"Mommy, go away now!"
As he said "now" he would slam his hand down on whatever he was standing next to for serious emphasis. It was actually funny to hear him try to boss me around. What was I to do though? The poor guy was so drugged and not himself that I/we just couldn't discipline him for acting like a stink-pot. Don't get me wrong...when he kicked the dogs or tried running full speed into the playroom window and slamming into it, I definitely corrected him. He didn't get away with too much murder.
Can I just tell you how worn out I was by Tuesday evening? Dealing with an altered personality for 10 hours straight can wear a girl down. Thankfully, Matt got home just as I was about to call 911 to have them come rescue me.
Now we're ending our Wednesday and on to personality 3...lethargy. Kyle slept through the night (finally) and woke up in a generally good mood. We stopped his breathing treatments Tuesday afternoon because his breathing is way improved and because we can't stand to see him so...well, crazy. I went to work (for my own sanity) and Kyle went to Mother's Day Out. They said he was super lethargic and just wanted to lay around all day. After school he was pretty much the same way...lethargic, dark circles under his eyes, doesn't want to do anything. He fell asleep on the couch at 4:45 and woke up around 6. He's now asleep again and it's only 7:30. We're wondering if he's coming down off of his Albuterol 'high' and that's why he's so tired.
As of today, we are done with these awful, awful drugs. I understand the need for them, but good grief, I hope we don't ever have to give them to him again. They are horrible! There should be warning labels on both stating that they're mind and personality altering. It is painful to see your child like that...he's not able to tell us what's going on, and there's nothing we can do to make it go away!
Fortunately, he seems to be over the worst of the RSV, unfortunately, the symptoms can last up to SIX WEEKS. Those symptoms are coughing, shortness of breath and snot...lots of snot. Fun, fun!
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| At the ER in our cool masks. |
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| Playing games on daddy's phone. Such a sweet face! |
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| Passed out on the couch Wed night. Note: He never sleeps anywhere but his bed, so he must be super tired! |
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