April 6, 2011 2:45 a.m.

What a difference a day makes. 

Over the weekend, Sweet Girl  did some sneezing and had some mild allergy symptoms, we presume, from the mounds of pollen in the outdoor air due to the season.  She never was one to be an allergy sufferer, but all of us were feeling symptoms around here, so we weren’t too surprised at this.

On Monday evening, she went to bed but had just begun to develop a cough.

Yesterday (Tuesday) morning, she woke up feeling lousy, exhausted, with a low grade fever, and not wanting to eat, read, or do anything except lie on the sofa.  She complained of chest pain when coughing.  She felt nauseous by late morning.  And then by midday, I noticed she had developed a pattern of labored breathing.

Got her to the pediatrician’s office by two, and we were there for 2-1/2 hours.  It took two breathing treatments to get her where she needed to be.  Turns out she was diagnosed with an attack of asthma and concurrent asthma-induced pneumonia. 

Friends, I don’t know what to say except this all came up in the span of a half a day.  Monday she was healthy, Tuesday she was very sick.  Monday, I had a healthy daughter, Tuesday I have an asthma sufferer.  This is a first for our family; none of us has ever had asthma.  I do remember that Sweet Girl had a lot of eczema when she was a baby and that this is sometimes a warning that asthma could follow some day.  Well, I am sorry to say that she is eight years old now, and it has arrived.

So when Self-Reliant Man arrived home from work in the evening, he walked in on the sight of Sweet Girl receiving a nebulizer treatment.  A bit of a surprise for him, too, I might add.  And the kitchen counter is now adorned with zithromycin, prednisolone, albuterol, and a plastic tube, mask, and machine.  Welcome to the asthma club.

So now I am up in the middle of the night checking in on her breathing, giving her another dose of pednisolone, and setting my alarm for another hour later.  At the moment she does feel comfortable, so I am not going to get too bent out of shape over the fact that her breathing is rapid.  Doctor told me not to overreact at this.  After all, she does have pneumonia, too. 

We have another appointment in the morning.

All prayers gratefully accepted.  This, too, is for a reason, I know.