Where Has the Pruetz Family Been?

The better question would be where hasn't the Pruetz family been? I'll try to start from the beginning, without making this too lengthy.

Last Thursday (not this past Thursday, but the one before), after school, Devin and Todd jetted off to fabulous Ames, IA to visit Aunt Jill in her stomping grounds. They went to the Iowa State football game (where they beat Colorado 28-21!), a wrestling match (that was Devin's idea), and generally had fun around the college town.

Meanwhile, back here in San Antonio, the girls and I had a quiet Thursday night while I got the three of us ready for our weekend.

The twins stayed here with my sister (bless her heart) while I flew to Houston on Friday afternoon for my friend, Bridget's wedding. Bridget and I were best friends in middle school and high school and while life has taken us in opposite directions for many years now, we've still remained close.

Along with Bridget and me, our friend Karen was a major part of our lives our senior year in High School. You may know Karen from my comments -- she always signs with her last name, though...Blake. Surprise! Blake is a girl!

Anyhoo...Karen lives in Houston where the wedding was taking place, and offered to house me and be my date to this fabulous event. She picked me up from the airport on Friday night and we went to her place to get ready for the rehearsal dinner.

Karen lives alone in a condo that took me back to my days as a single woman in Dallas. It's a great place with a living room, dining room, kitchen and half bath down and two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a study upstairs. Very similar to the one I owned in the Big D and I immediately felt myself relaxing.

The rehersal dinner was a lot of fun, as we reuninted with old friends, reconnected with Bridget's family (who were like a second family to me when I was younger) and had a generally great time.

We retired early that night and woke up on Saturday morning and just hung out, catching up and relaxing. Karen went to the gym at 10:00 and I took a shower and got ready for the bridesmaids' brunch. I was finished getting fixed up, though, long before Karen was due home and I found myself wondering what to do with all of this time and quietness on my hands. It was bliss! I plopped myself into Karen's comfy living room chair and read my book. WOW! Alone, quiet and reading -- there's something I haven't done in years!

Karen came home, got herself ready and we were off to the brunch. It was a lovely affair with incredible food and great company. The wine flowed like water, too, so by the time we got out of there, we all had pretty good buzzes.

To keep the buzz going, we bought another bottle of vino and headed to Karen's favorite nail salon. Karen had her fingers and toes done while I had my toes done and my eyebrows waxed. Two hours later, we were looking fine!

A trip home and a quick nap on the couch (to sleep off the afternoon's libations) and then we got ready for the big event.

The wedding was held in a Cathedral-style church in Houston and was simply gorgeous. Bridget was just beautiful and the whole event was perfect. The behind-the-scenes bumps we were privvy to went unnoticed by all of the other guests.

The reception was at the Houstonian hotel and club and was gorgeous. Ben and Bridget even provided a photo booth for guests to take photos in and then put out a scrapbook in which to paste your pictures and write a little note. It was too much fun and after a few glasses of wine, you can imagine the kinds of pictures that came out of there. :)

The party ended around midnight, after quite a few rounds of dancing, and Karen and I returned to her house, exhausted. I fell asleep pretty early and managed to sleep through the night until 9:45 Sunday morning. There's something else I haven't done in years!

We grabbed a bite to eat and hit Starbucks, but soon it was time to head to the airport where I said goodbye to Karen and thanked her over and over again for being such a gracious and wonderful hostess! It was an awesome time, indeed.

I arrived back in San Antonio Sunday afternoon and that night, Todd and Devin flew in. Once again, the Pruetz family was back together and things went back to normal.

HA!

Wednesday of last week, both girls woke up with a fever, so I did what I always do: Call the doctor's office at 8:00:01 and set up appointment for both of them that afternoon.

Sure enough, it was strep and we were sent home with antibiotics for both. Seems pretty cut-n-dried, right?

HA!

They woke up Thursday not feeling much better, but I didn't think much of it. Friday rolled around, though, and they were wheezing and coughing really, really badly. I called the doctor's office to get a recommendation on what I could give them to make them more comfortable, but I was told that due to their age, there was nothing more that I could do than a cool mist humidifier and the snot sucker. I threw in a few Xopenex nebulizer treatments for good measure and we headed into the weekend.

Saturday, though, the wheezing wasn't any better. We spent plenty of time in a steamed-up bathroom, upped the nebulizer treatments and continued with the snot sucking and humidifier.

But to no avail, as Sunday morning was even worse than Saturday morning. As the girls both had 20-minute continuing coughing fits, Todd and I looked at each other and said, "Something's wrong."

So we paged the on-call doctor and she as alarmed to hear about the girls' condition and how it had escalated so quickly.

Then she said something that nearly stopped my heart: "There's been an outbreak of RSV in the past few weeks. You need to get them to the ER as quickly as possible."

For those who don't know, RSV is a virus that causes the common cold. It's pretty harmless, aside from making you feel miserable, in healthy people. But in babies who were born before 36 or 37 weeks, it can be deadly. Mothers pass antibodies that help their babies fight infections outside the womb, but RSV antiboties aren't transfered from mom to kiddo until fairly late in gestation, meaning that preemies lack any ability to fight the virus if they catch it. There is an RSV vaccine, which the girls got last year and will get this year, that gives those antibodies in a monthly shot. The shot is fairly new, though, and RSV is still a very scary thing for preemies.

So the twins and I headed to the ER while Todd took Devin to the after hours pediatrician's office because we were sure he had gotten strep from the girls -- coughing, wheezing, fever, etc.

We were triaged as soon as we got to the hospital and the girls were okay, aside from pulse-ox levels of 94 and 95. That's borderline, "Uh-oh," and the nurses decided to do the RSV test on them just in case.

We were sent to the waiting room where we did just that -- we waited. And waited, and waited and waited.

Three hours later, I went to the same triage nurse and asked if the RSV tests had come back. She told me that she could not tell me, that the doctor has to give me the results. She asked if I'd like to come have the girls' vitals taken again and I said that yes, that would make me feel better.

So my two charmers went back behind the desk and, of course, everyone flocked around to say hello to them again. The nurse who was helping us this time was the same one who had administered the RSV test three hours earlier. She saw the look on my face and said, "I'm not technically allowed to give you the results of the tests, but let's just say that your girls won't be catching RSV here -- they'll be doling it out."

And with that, my premature babies were diagnosed with the deadly RSV virus. They were scheduled to get their first RSV vaccination today at 2:50. We were 24 hours too late.

After leaving triage, I got a call from Todd. Devin didn't have strep -- he had a sinus infection. And an even bigger surprise was the diagnosis of seasonal asthma. He was sent home with orders to see a pediatric pulmonologist and with three different steroids to get the problem under control.

Todd and Dev drove to the ER and met the girls and I in the lobby. We waited another hour and were finally seen by the doctor. By this time, the babies' pulse-ox levels were at 98 and 99, which is significantly better and after a thorough examination, the girls were deemed "Pretty Good," despite their diagnosis.

She said to keep a close eye on the girls, look for signs of respiratory distress and dehydration and to not hesitate to call if we had any questions.

And with that, we were discharged. We are now doing nebulizer treatments every four hours, even at night, and hoping for the best.

The girls are miserable. They cry constantly and are awake at night every hour or so. It's like having newborns again and I'm barely surviving on three hours of sleep. Devin, too, is miserable, and the Prednisone steroid that he's on is making him a bear to deal with. I'm just about at the end of my rope.

Wanna hear the best part of the story? I have 17 people coming to dinner on Thursday.

Any prayers you can spare are appreciated. The girls have their 18-month check-up today (the appointment when we should have been getting the RSV shot) and I'll post more after we see their doctor.

Peace.

Me