Tia has Bronchiolitis

My poor baby girl is sick yet again. In addition to an ear infection, she also has what is called Bronchiolitis, which is a virus that forms mucus in the lining of her airways.  She must have caught it around Christmas time because the week before Christmas the three of us were all sick with a common cold, so her immunities were down over the holidays.  Her cough has sounded different the past few days and so we decided to get her into the doctor yesterday. Luckily, I was off and they were able to get her in.  They didn't really give me fair warning to how horrifying it is to give your own child a nebulizer treatment for Albuteral. They showed me how to pin her arms with one arm, put her legs between my legs to hold her down, and with my other hand to cup the mask of this nebulizer on Tia's chin, so she breathes in the Albuteral via the nebulizer.  It was absolutely horrible for both of us. Tia screamed out in the worst cry the entire time and my heart broke having to force to have this treatment. They made me do it for almost 10 minutes.  They only comforting thing was that I knew it was going to help her and the more she cried the deeper the Albuteral would get into her system.  When it was over, she hugged me like she has never hugged me before and I wanted to just ball.  I got her smiling quickly after and I was happy because my heart seriously broke. It broke even farther when the doctor told me we had to do this to her 3 times a day for 10 days. My heart sank and I knew telling Chris was going to make his heart sink too. Chris went and picked up the nebulizer ($100 if you have to buy a new one) and all of the viles of Albuterol. They gave us 540 viles and I was thinking to myself - I am not going to make her do this 540 times BUT I am sure they give you extra because 4 to 6 times a day is the max dosage and I guess if you have to buy a nebulizer, might as well get extra medicine to use in the future. Luckily, we just borrowed the nebulizer we have.  So the doctor also wrote a note for daycare...because she has had Bronchiolitis for a bit, she is not contagious and can go back to daycare (wfew), but they will have to give her the mid afternoon dose. Chris gave her the dosage last night and I could tell it pained him so much.  It was a hard sight to see. He first, waited until she was asleep and placed the mask over her nose and mouth, but she woke up. He knew he was going to have to force it on her.  It was late and I was already in bed, but when I heard Tia cry, I knew what was happening. I decided to go help and her face and his face just was hard to see.  Chris gave her a little over 5 minutes and I did about 3. She hated it!  When it was over, she wanted me and I think Chris felt like he was the worst dad in the world, but contrary to his feeling, he was an awesome dad to go through this and not show his sadness to her.  She hugged me again with such strength and Chris wanted to get a hug too, to know she wasn't upset with him. He took her against her wishes and we both knew she would ultimately hug him and she did.  I read up on other parents tactics and got a lot of great advice, so I'm going to try a few different ways to get her to breathe the medicine. This morning, I did it while she was drinking a bottle and watching Baby Einstein. She seemed annoyed, but she didn't cry.  It worked, but I think it will only work in the morning, so we'll see how it goes at daycare and again at night. Ultimately she'll deal with it and it will be good in the end. It is just hard to force something on your child when they don't want it. Her ear is starting to drain, she is coughing out the toxins, and her voice will be hoarse during the next week, but hopefully soon, she'll rid this awful Bronchiolitis. She's our Angel and has a rough year, but I know that this will make her even stronger later in life.