October 8, 2016

I’LL NEVER FORGET THAT DAY…

This post was sponsored by AstraZeneca as part of an Influencer Activation for Influence Central and all opinions expressed in my post are my own.


I will never forget that shift. It was March, when most parents think RSV season is over, I was at the hospital putting in my hours working for nursing school on the pediatric floor. When I arrived on my shift that day, the nurse I was with told me it was going to be a rough and hard day. We had a full patient load and they were all RSV patients with scared parents. The feeling of going into the rooms of my sweet baby patients was heartbreaking. In the bed lay a sweet tiny baby, screaming, with decreased tiny lung sounds, suction machines running, and tears in moms and dads eyes as the Respiratory Therapy team worked on their sweet tiny baby. The parents looking to the nurses and myself for reassurance, for hope for their little one. Parents explaining they thought they were “in the clear” with RSV season, that they had protected their little ones good enough, that they never thought it would happen to them… Absolutely heartbreaking. I will never forget the exhaustion I felt leaving that shift, with a sweet baby who passed away, the heartbreak, and the helplessness I felt. 

I had my sweet tiny baby in the middle of December, the middle of winter, and when RSV season was just getting going last year in Utah. To say I was an anxious, overprotective parent because of that shift I had worked a few years prior would be an understatement. Do you know how to protect your little tiny babies lungs from the season’s biggest threat? It is so important to know all about RSV and to do everything in your power to protect their sweet little lungs. October is National RSV Awareness month. It is a time that we work so hard to educate parents about the signs and symptoms of RSV disease and what you can do to prevent it in your little one. 

RSV is a very common seasonal virus. It generally starts in November and goes through March. RSV is the leading cause of hospitalization for babies during their first year of life and such a scary thing to have happen to your little one. Did you know that there is a difference between contracting RSV and becoming seriously ill with RSV? Did you know that nearly all babies by the age of two in the United States will contract RSV, but it can vary in severity in every single baby. I encourage you to go to RSVProtection.com and to learn about the virus, become educated and learn the best ways to prevent it in your little love. 

No mama or dad wants to watch their little one go through being so sick. Education is is key and learning how you can prevent it in your little one is life changing. If it does happen to your little one and you did everything you could to learn about it and prevent it, you did your job mama. Your doing amazing mama, I’m so proud of you.

XX dani