So, I started another preventative measure for my urinary tract health. For 10 days, I took 10 drops in a tablespoon of water four times a day last month. Now I just take 12 drops in the morning when I wake up and 12 more drops at night before I go to sleep. My Mom puts it in a one cup measuring cup that I have. Before I would drink it, I would smell something. Something chemical. Something familiar. I couldn’t put my finger on it! I asked my Mom and she couldn’t identify it either!
Sean stopped by a couple weeks ago to get his suit coat and I asked him to smell it because it was familiar but I couldn’t recognize it! He opened the bottle and took one sniff, and he looked at me and said, “The breathing treatment.”
THAT’S IT!!! I knew it was familiar for a reason! Since he has told me that, I’m trying to wreck my brain to remember what I did. I remember that I gave him breathing treatments when he got home from the hospital and I’m not sure how long I did it for.
His lungs were underdeveloped when he was born and the breathing treatment would strengthen his lungs. I want to say that I started doing it every other day or maybe it was every day in the beginning. I’m not even sure how long I did it for. This is a 23-year-old memory. Sean will be 23 in November!
I remember the nurse explaining to me about putting the albuterol into the breathing machine and she also told me to take him into the bathroom with the hot water running full blast. She said when the room got steamy, I should turn the breathing machine on. She warned me that he may not like it. He may cry. But then she said that that’s good for him because the medicine will get deep into his lungs that way.
I had totally forgotten about this until Sean remembered ‘the breathing treatment.’ The nurse told me to just take him in the bathroom in his diaper so his clothes would not get soggy. it took me a moment to remember, but I clearly did when I thought about it. I would sit on the toilet seat with Sean in my lap with the shower on in my Parents’ house.
The breathing treatment machine was only on for minutes before Sean would start to cry every time, and just after he would start, I would, too!!! I’m not sure how long we had to sit there maybe 15 minutes? It was the longest 15 minutes at that point in my life! Just like the 31 days he spent in the NICU with the longest in my life as well!
I really can’t believe that I did all of this when I was so young but I did! That’s blowing my mind! But now, I take that medicine daily for myself because #MSsucks but I knew it smelled familiar, but I could not place it. I really can’t remember that now. But I remember that it was difficult!