Split Second Timing

Bennett produced a really nasty junky, wet, barky cough lastnight while in the hospital. She goes into really scary coughing fits and has trouble clearing her throat. We were discharged from the hospital today despite her catching something while being admitted for an NG cleanout of Golytely.


She was really sleepy and I know she hasn't slept very well in the past 4 nights, so I started her nebs and vest a little early so she can get settled into bed.


At 7pm I hooked up for vest and neb of albuterol/pulmicort. The shaking of the vest began. She fell asleep 8 minutes into her vest. Since she had fallen asleep I decided to clean out my purse and write her new appointments/med changes into my calendar. I often glance over at her while she is doing her treatments too see if she is sitting up properly when she falls asleep.

During the first few minutes in she had a tiny coughing spell and that was it. She uses a Pari LC neb mask and for those of you who do not know what it looks like, here is an example:



I for an unknown reason glanced over at her and I dearly thank god that I did. I saw her mask filling up with mucusy vomit. I jumped up and ripped her mask off and leaned her over and just left it go onto the floor. If I was a second late glancing over at her, she would've ended up choking and/or aspirating because her mask was filled up and the only place for it to go would be back down her throat. It was like cleaning up egg whites (also for people who aren't familiar with what CF patients bring up). She didn't gag, cough or give any other sign she was going to throw up. I WAS going to do the dinner dishes while she did her treatments but thankfully I was feeling lazy and was going to do them after she was asleep!


I thank you dearly god for having me glance over at her at the second you did! If not, who knows what condition my baby would be in right now!


This is another example of how unpredictable Cystic Fibrosis truly is!


She is now awake and lying in bed. She still sounds very congested and junky eventhough she just emptied a good amount out!