Last night, Eve woke up retching and gagging on mucous. She was doing it every few minutes and I wasn't comfortable leaving her side. It was pretty scary. She just couldn't seem to keep her airway clear. The triage nurse sent us to the ER. I know it would have been better to go to Baystate, but I couldn't drive her there by myself. She would have needed someone by her side to keep her head down to drain excess saliva etc. So, we went to the local ER. The tested her for flu (negative), did a chest X-ray, checked her oxygen levels (fine). They also tried some suctioning, but it didn't really help and they were afraid to aggravate the airway. So, they sent us to Baystate via ambulance. We arrived around 3am and settled in to sleep around 4.
Eve has been doing much better since we've arrived. One of the docs witnessed a retching episode and said that while it is scary, she's doing fine. So, the plan is to send us home today after the pulmonary nurses teach me how to suction her. They will order us some suctioning equipment as well.
Eve's neurologist also stopped by (I love that doctor). He said she looks chubby. :) He told me not to worry about her choking to death on the mucous. He said we would worry if she was not able to gag/retch. Aspiration would be much worse. That's comforting because it so scary when she retches. It's nice to frame that as a good thing.
So, now we wait for her to get over this cold. I'm going back to having a hospital bag packed at all times. I got too comfortable and unpacked that bag about a month ago. Can't wait to get home so we can both rest (and I can get clean).
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