Breathe in, breathe out

There is this song that begins with this chanting of 'breathe in, breathe out'. At times, as we've faced infections with Annie, practiced taking her off of CPAP, and now, when her breathing is raggedy and scary, I keep thinking of this little chant. The past few days have been scary as Annie has struggled to breathe comfortably. We've put her on steroids (she's on 2 different ones) and are working hard to keep her out of the hospital. So far, her O2 levels are awesome so we've been able to manage her care at home along with frequent visits to her doctor (who is the awesomist). I think Annie's biggest challenge is she has something called muscous plugs in her chest. We've all had them (yes, even you dear reader) but we have the ability to hack them up. Annie doesn't. So we need to pound on her back to break them up while giving her the meds we have to help her lungs relax and stop wheezing.

We've made this a family effort: Luke turns on her nebulizer (it steams like a choo choo = cool); Steve holds her upright so she doesn't make herself vomit with all the coughing and I nag everyone and read scary articles that I shouldn't be reading.

So, it's been a tough road but we will persevere. Annie is the toughest of us all -she still manages to look up at us and smile while she is getting her treatments. There is nothing I want more than for this little one to be cut a break. But, if we have to go through this, then I am so thankful that we have such wonderful family and medical care to allow us to give this little girl every resource available. We'll make it through, it's just going to take a little while.