Chapter 3 - The Beginning of the Dark Time

Cyann was a cute little pumpkin for her first Halloween. I remember thinking the outfit would suit her "spider belly" pretty nicely. She was acting a little more cranky than usual that night, and then significantly worse over the next two days. We took her into the doctor on a Friday, wondering if maybe she had an ear infection. The doctor ( a substitute for our regular doctor) didn't see anything wrong at all, and sent us on our way. Over that weekend, she got her very first fever, and it didn't go away all weekend. The only way to keep her calm at all was to walk around the house with her in her car seat carrier. When I called the nurseline, I was told it was alright to give her Tylenol, so that's what we did. On Monday, we got a prescription for Omoxycillin, and luckily it kicked in within the day.

We thought we had been through the worsed and survived, but we had no idea that the rollercoaster was just picking up speed. Cyann was due to get her 4 month shots around that time, but had to wait to get done with the antibiotics. So on the follow-up visit for the ear infection, which had supposedly cleared up, she got her shots and were told to start cereals. She seemed to be doing a lot better, but still had many 'cranky days'. She was definitely not known as a 'social baby'.

Thanksgiving Day came along, and the weather was just starting to get a little cooler, so I had Cyann in a sleeper the night before. Around mid-morning, Scott noticed a rash around her neck and a small spot on her tummy. Then a little bit on her ear. But a really strange pattern...only the top half of her ear was red. We were wondering if maybe it was a heat rash. So I gave her a cool bath, and it seemed to have gone away. So we get ready and drive almost an hour away to Papa John's house. When Cyann was put into the car, she looked fine. An hour later getting out of the car, the rash was back, under her eyes and around her neck again. Now we were wondering if it was an allergic reaction to laundry soap? Or maybe a food allergy? Even though at that point, she was still on the rice cereal.

We gave her some Benadryl, and the rash went away. But by the end of that night, she had a fever again. Being first-time parents, we tried not to panic too much, but I remember being really worried about this. The next morning, the Friday after Thanksgiving, we woke up to find she had the rash again, but now it was all over her body. I was thinking it looked like the measles a little bit. We decided it was time to go to the doctor. But being the holiday weekend, he wasn't in that day, so we went on to the the E/R of the closest hospital. (we did make a 'follow-up' appt. for Monday morning with our doctor.) Unfortunately, the closest hospital is on the edge of a retirement community, and therefore, ill-equipped to cater to infants. However, they did give her a big dose of Benadryl, tested her for staph (which came back negative), and said it must be a virus of some kind. It should run it's course in 48 hours. They also said that she still seemed to have a bit of an ear infection, and we were given a prescription for a different antibiotic. And so we went home.

Almost exactly 48 hours from the first notice, the mysterous rash seemed to have cleared up. We were relieved to think at least she wasn't allergic to something and that we'd have to figure out what that was. We all got a decent night's sleep that night, but then....Sunday night, of that same Thanksgiving Day weekend, I had only been in bed about an hour or so, when Scott threw the bedroom door open, and was shrieking, "She's gasping for air! She's turning blue! We need to leave right now!" For a split second, I thought maybe I was dreaming. But then I could hear Cyann, and I knew this was real.

Once again, we headed for the same hospital. But by the time we had gotten to the parking lot, Cyann had started breathing normally, and was even in somewhat of a good mood(?). But we were already there, and we needed some kind of reassurance that whatever just happened, wasn't going to happen again.

In the E/R, she was taken to have a chest X-ray to see if there was any pneumonia. (Nope) As she lay on the bed, we went through our whole story from top to bottom, and all they could come up with was that her tummy was so large that maybe it was compressing her lungs, making it hard for her to breathe. And why was her tummy so large?...Because they said we were feeding her too much! That was the last time we ever went to that hospital.

When we went to see our regular doctor for the follow-up visit concerning the rash, now we had a new story to tell. As it turned out, Cyann started having problems breathing right there in his office, with him to witness the attack. He checked her out and diagnosed her with bronchilitis. I had never even heard of this, but it seems that it's a lesser version of bronchitis. He prescribed breathing treatments, and to continue the latest antibiotic for her ear infection. We noticed a "hard spot" on Cyann's left side that we thought was part of her trouble with constipation, so the doctor told us to switch to a soy formula. And once again, we were scheduled for a follow-up visit the next week.

At that follow-up visit, everything was great. Perfect. No more breathing episodes. No more signs of the rash. And the ears finally looked pretty good. We thought, once again, that we had been through THE WORST and survived. From here on out, it seemed like smooth sailing....Until the hurricane hit.