A & A

Some of you know and some of you don't but we have been spending our summer so far trying to discover why Addy has a horrible reoccuring cough that is mostly present between the hours of midnight and 6 am.  Back in April when her cough started she we were told that she had croup. A month later when her cough returned we were told she had Reactive airway disease (RAD).  After her cough returned for a third time we decided that we needed to find some specialists for our princess.  We visited Midwest Allergy and Asthma roughly two weeks ago where we got the inital diagnosis of asthma.  We also received some bad news about her peanut allergy but we will save that for a later date.  I was shocked of course by this diagnosis.  I always thought that asthma was shortness of breath while running or being active.  I guess this is why we pay Dr.'s the big bucks because of course I was wrong.  That is indeed part of asthma but not the whole disease.  

Asthma in children is most often presents itself in the form of an asmatic cough during early morning hours and responds very well to nebulizer treatment.  Based on the timing of Addy's cough, and various other factors this Dr. felt very strongly that she had this disease.  We started Addy on some medicine with little to no HUGE progress.  We have still been up everynight with her coughing, sometimes giving her a neb, sometimes offering water, etc.  I was told the medicine takes a while to get into her system, that is a very slow acting medicine and to be patient.  Anybody who knows me knows that I am not patient, so the past two weeks have been very very hard.  It is hard to hear your baby coughing so hard and not being able to take it away.

Over the weekend I decided that we were going to get a second opinion.  I called today for an appointment and by 2:30 Addy was having a chest x-ray at Children's speciality clinics.  Her x-ray was GREAT!!!  There were no signs of any other diseases or problems and the dr. is very optimistic about Addy.  He agrees with the original diagnosis of persistent, nonactive asthma but did not agree with the treatment plan.  

While some families have rescue plans, escape plans, fire plans, or even VACATION plans, our family has the asthma action plan. For those not familiar and I hope it is most of you there is a three step zoning process to the plan.  Green, yellow and red zones, that help parents and care givers know and assess when your child needs more or less meds.  Addy is currently in the Green (lowest level zone) but she is not stable.  We need to get her not coughing anymore at night before she reaches stable condition.  Addy will continue taking the meds prescribed by the first specialist but she will add some regular nebulizer treatments on top of that.  She will be using her nebulizer for thirty days straight in hopes that this keeps the cough at bay.  If it does not we try something else, stronger meds until we find something that takes the cough away.

We are of course very very new to this, and are trying to adapt to this new lifestyle for Addy.  Asthma is something that she could outgrow, and it is something she might not outgrow which is what we were told about her peanut allergy.  It is something that she can live a very active life with, but is going to take a while to find the right meds that her body requires to get there.  That for now is the biggest obstacle.  Once we know what triggers her asthma, and what medicine works for her we will be doing much better.  Asthma is also something that will be a part of our family for a while.  Although she might outgrow it, that doesn't happen overnight and her biggest chance of doing so isn't until her late elementry school years.  This is the hardest part for me, it makes me sad that she will be dealing with this for a long period of time.  I want a quick fix and then be done with it.  That is not the case here.  It is a long term illness.

Addy is spunky, happy and the dr called her healthy today!!!  I thank God everyday for my healthy, happy children.  This is a bump in the round, a challenge that we will conquer and I know my princess will be able to deal with it.  We thank everybody for their patience with us, prayers and kind thoughts during this process thus far.  We continue to ask for prayers for Addy while we work towards the treatment plan that is right for her now....and other treatment plans when things flare up and get worse.

Oh...in case anybody wanted to know how Isaac feels about all of this.  He knows and understands that Addy has to take medicine, He also like his parents will protect her from anything he thinks might hurt her.  Including the Dr. the other day, He moved her back away from him and told her,"it's okay Addy, I will hold your hand, you will be okay."  The two stood there and held hands during the exam.  She has not forgotten this moment that he reached out to her.  In the weeks since when she is upset, over anything (mostly getting her hair combed) she asks him to hold her hand.  Without being told he does.

We have the best kids!!!