Pneumonia

The World Health Organization states that Pneumonia is the leading cause of death in children worldwide.  So imagine the fear I had when I found out that Nina had it.  She had terrible colds the other day and soon it had progressed to coughing.  The next day,  noticed that she was breathing heavily and that's when I sent an SMS to her pediatrician.  Because the pedia was out of town, we were advised to see another doctor right away.  We were later on advised to proceed to the ER so that they could nebulize her.  If her condition would not improve, she had to be admitted.

Thank God she improved after the second nebulization.  My daughter loves moving around and confining her to a hospital room would definitely upset her.

feeling better at the ER

We were able to bring her home from the ER but had to nebulize every 4 hours round the clock.  Eventually, the cycle was moved to every 6 hours with an addition of another stronger (but expensive) medicine until she improved.

About the same time, we noticed that her Kuya still had a cough even after taking antibiotics and an anti-allergy medicine so x-rays and blood tests were done.  To our dismay, he was also diagnosed with pneumonia!  Despite the diagnosis, kuya was still his energetic self but hearing the diagnosis still made me worry.

We're done with Nina's medication and Kuya's round of antibiotics will soon be over.  I am hoping that after this, it'll be a while before I visit the drugstore/pharmacist again.

Although the pneumonia that my kids have was not as critical as I imagine pneumonia to be, I know that I still cannot erase my impression of this infection as a deadly one.