Monday, April 24, 2006

Baby Iggy's Day at the Pediatric Pulmonologist

I left the pulmo Friday with two things I fully expected to leave with: a prescription for Iggy's first chest Xray, and one for Ozzy's full battery of allergy tests. (He just turned two, so we can do all the food allergies now.)

The rest wasn't quite what I expected. For starters, his lungs really did sound clear. This wasn't so surprising, his cough had really tapered down to nothing -- thank God! It had been two weeks since it started, after all.

She did, however, think the cough he had was Pertussis, aka Whooping Cough. She figured he had a mild case, since he'd already had one course of the vaccine. But apparently, it's been going around, and the way I described his cough sounded about right to her.

She asked if I'd given him albuterol for the cough. I explained that, as Iggy is FOUR MONTHS OLD, I wouldn't presume to give him albuterol. Especially since he'd never been seen by a pediatric pulmonologist before! She said that, given our family history, it would be alright to do so. Since his airways are still very, very tiny (AWW!), he'd only get as much as he needed if we administered the stuff via nebulizer.

I'm glad she trusts me to administer medications to my babies like that, but I still think I'd prefer to call her and/or have her SEE the baby before I go and administer an emergency bronchodilator to an infant.

As for the chest Xray, I may well skip that. I'm not sure he needs it at this point.

I'm almost excited to see what Ozzy's allergic to, on the other hand. There's so much he won't eat, I wonder if he's actually allergic to some of those things. That's how #1 son was. He wouldn't eat eggs after they made him throw up once or twice. Turns out, he's allergic.

I'm betting Ozzy's slightly allergic to grapes...and I'm curious to see what else! Bets, anyone?

One last bit of good news: I'm bringing Li'l B and Ozzy in next month for checkups, and there's a good chance we'll be able to lower B's Flovent to 44 (awesome, considering he was on 220 about a year ago!) and take Ozzy off the stuff completely for the summer. Yeah!

Friday, April 21, 2006

Taking the baby to the pulmonologist tomorrow

I may be overreacting, but baby Iggy (aka #3) is going to the peds. pulmonologist tomorrow.

He still has a trace of that cough, 2 weeks later, and I'd rather be safe than sorry. I mean, the kid's not even four months old yet!

We went to the regular peds two weeks ago, and they didn't hear any wheezing, but still... this cough sounds seriously scary. Scary enough that all the cousins had this blanched-looking expression on their faces when they heard it at dinner last week.

If nothing else, this will get him on Dr. W's patient roster. This way, if he does have a, um, *concerning* illness later on, I can page her directly. And if I think he has RSV, we can get him in with her right away.

And if, God forbid, there is something wrong right now, we can get the action plan started right away.

Meanwhile, I've gotta get the other two in with her next month. I'm hoping to lower #1 son to Flovent 44 (down from 220 last year!) and #2 off the stuff completely for the season.

But that's another post...!

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Baby's cough - please, no!

Just a quick update -- took #3 (now 3 months old) to the pediatrician Friday. He was congested and had this horrific sounding cough!! The doctor said his lungs were clear, no wheezing...still. He's coughing that horrible cough only after eating now, so I can only guess that it's reflux, which we all know can be related to asthma.

Not optimistic. But why would I be?

Little B is doing better -- I didn't hear him cough once today. Hardly any snot either, thankfully. I was just about to take him to the PP for a sinus infection. So, good news there.

#2 son seems fine.

Can it be? Will we make it through the week without anymore albuterol? Might be a record!

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Dyspraxia -- not asthma related (I don't think)

If I haven't mentioned this before, #1 son is in a special preschool to work on his motor skills and a possible sensory integration dysfunction. He's really smart and outgoing, but he has always had some "quirks." He flaps his arms when he's excited, he (more and more frequently) walks on his toes, and we're starting to see that he has low muscle tone. He also may be a little more dependent on routines than other preschoolers.

Members of my family had concerns that he had an autistic spectrum disorder, but he's so smart and so demonstrative, even our doctors dismissed the concern.

But when I started to see his quirks beginning to interfere with his activities and possibly his education, I requested that he be evaluated for the special needs preschool in our town. As stated, he's enrolled, and while he's getting PT and OT through the program, it's his "autistic tendencies" that are really beginning to concern me.

My cousin, who's an Occupational Therapist, thinks he may have Dyspraxia, which I'm trying to learn more about. I'm not finding too much -- I don't even know if it's on the autistic spectrum, but it does seem to make sense, based on his behaviors. But I'd like to do a little more research before even mentioning it to our pediatrician.

I've found that other kids on the asthma-parents list have kids with ASDs or SI dysfunction, so I'm wondering....

If you have a child with and ASD or SI dysfunction, or if you can link to any Dyspraxia info, please share!!!

Thanks.

Near miss - coughing, green snot, but that's about all!

#1 had a rough week; lots of coughing, green gunk, etc. but he seems to be fine. A little Combivent, and we're under control.

Here's the rant, though. I went to daycare on Monday with instructions to give him albuterol at 11:00 and 3:00 every day this week. Monday, he seemed to have gotten it. Yesterday, he told me he didn't get his medicine. My husband asked the director if she gave him the meds, and she said yes, but little B said she didn't. His teacher said she "didn't *see* him get it." (Note the politically correct wording there.)

Today, he told us he got it ONCE. Not twice.

So tomorrow, we'll have to have his teacher call us before she administers each dose.

Little B may be only 4, but the kid really doesn't lie. I take his word over the director's any day.