After a rough night last night with Meredith, I decided to take her to see her ENT today. She wasn't able to get to sleep last night until around 3 am. She just rolled around crying about her ears hurting until that time. I did my best to comfort her, but it didn't help much.
We saw another doctor in the practice at 1:15 pm today. Her usual doctor was in surgery today. It took four of us to hold Mere down long enough for the doctor to catch a peek into her ears. She was unable to see anything other than blood, dried blood. So, she put Mere on an antibiotic ear drop until Monday of next week when she will then have a procedure under anesthesia to clean out her ears and attempt to figure out what's going on in there. They will start with the gas. If she isn't still enough with that, they will have to put her under general anesthesia. They said it shouldn't take more than about 10 or 15 minutes once she's under.
Now, I know this doesn't sound all that bad, but the idea of her being put under general spooks me a bit. And, to top off the stress for that day, Anna starts kindergarten the same morning! So now I'm trying to figure out how to be in both places at once when both events are HUGE to us. Most of you know how big of a thing it has been to me that Anna's going to kindergarten. Ryan took off that day so that we could take her in together. Now, it will be only one of us as the other will have to be with Mere for her procedure. It's a really big deal to the both of us to always be there for our girls, especially in times like these, big days, so it just makes us a bit upset that we can't make that happen.
However, I know it will all be okay. I will update next week after the procedure so everyone knows how it went, and how she's doing.........and how Anna's first day at school was. I don't have a time set for Mere's procedure as of now. I take her in this Thursday morning for preregistration. We'll get a time at that point.
Please just say a prayer for the girls Monday morning that all with go smoothly for both. Thank you!
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Friday, August 8, 2008
Points for the 2nd and 3rd opinions
I ended up taking them to the urgent care center last night around 7:15 pm. I kind of just knew that if I didn't, I'd end up in the ER with at least one of them during the night. The doctor spent all of literally about 30 seconds listening to the lungs of the two of them, and quickly diagnosed them both with bronchitis. The nurse tossed us orders for Zithromax and Rondec (a cough medicine) for both the girls. I went straight to CVS to have them filled. While I was waiting, I couldn't help, but concentrate on the lack of faith I had in the doctor and his diagnosis. The girls were feeling yucky, but nothing too bad. Within the twenty minutes it took to get the meds and make it home, Anna had fallen asleep after complaining she was really cold. Well, I pull her out of the car and she's burning hot. I checked her temp when we got inside, and it had spiked up to 103. I got the rounds of meds and breathing treatments in them, and got them into bed, but that wasn't before Anna starting throwing up from the fever and coughing that just wouldn't let up for her. Eventually it did, and she fell asleep around 10:30 pm. I felt so awful for her. We all know how terrible we feel when we are sick, and then have a fever that high.
Ryan was at a class last night during all of this. He's taking a course for the next three and a half weeks that is helping to prepare him to pass his nursing licensing exam. Today he's off because he has to work Saturday.
So, I started this morning with a call to the girls' pulmonologist. She was at the hospital for today seeing patients, and wouldn't be able to see the kids, but the office staff promised to get the message to her. I then called their allergy/asthma doctor. She too was not in the office today. So, I finally called their pediatrician who also specializes in asthma to a degree. They of course go the girls in within an hour of calling. So, we rushed to get ready, and drove over to the pediatrician. He checked them both, and concluded that they do NOT have bronchitis, and did not need to be on the antibiotic (Zithromax). He advised us to continue with the asthma medications we're already doing. If they aren't getting better by Monday he wants to see them again to then possibly start them on Orapred (oral prednisone-a steroid). He felt that they just had a respiratory bug, and didn't need to be on the antibiotic. While there he had to remove a lot of wax from Mere's ears in order to check them for an infection. This proved to be quite traumatic for her, as it usually is, and she cried herself to sleep on the way home. Her ears actually bled a bit from it too which was a bit scary for us, but the doctor assurred us that this is common.
Just as we got home, their pulmonologist called me. Did I mention I LOVE this doctor! She's simply wonderful. So, she wanted to know what was going on with the girls. I proceeded to tell her everything. She gave me some info on using another asthma medication we have if it's absolulely necessary, and also told me to continue with the antibiotic. She felt that because Anna not only had the spike in fever last night but also a low grade fever for several days, she has an infection her body is fighting, and it would be best to keep her on the antibiotic to prevent her from possibly developing pneumonia. She also said that if the kids are not getting better by Monday, they will most likely need to start the Orapred.
So, we are home. The girls are resting, drinking fluids, and taking their big ole' bucket full of meds.
We'll update again on Monday probably.
Thank you for the prayers and kind works! They love you all!!!
Oh! And on a side note, Meredith no longer sleeps in a crib! Last night was her first night in a big girl bed, and she did wonderfully! She slept in it the entire night, never fell out, and didn't come out of her room until we went in to get her this morning. Such a big girl now!
Ryan was at a class last night during all of this. He's taking a course for the next three and a half weeks that is helping to prepare him to pass his nursing licensing exam. Today he's off because he has to work Saturday.
So, I started this morning with a call to the girls' pulmonologist. She was at the hospital for today seeing patients, and wouldn't be able to see the kids, but the office staff promised to get the message to her. I then called their allergy/asthma doctor. She too was not in the office today. So, I finally called their pediatrician who also specializes in asthma to a degree. They of course go the girls in within an hour of calling. So, we rushed to get ready, and drove over to the pediatrician. He checked them both, and concluded that they do NOT have bronchitis, and did not need to be on the antibiotic (Zithromax). He advised us to continue with the asthma medications we're already doing. If they aren't getting better by Monday he wants to see them again to then possibly start them on Orapred (oral prednisone-a steroid). He felt that they just had a respiratory bug, and didn't need to be on the antibiotic. While there he had to remove a lot of wax from Mere's ears in order to check them for an infection. This proved to be quite traumatic for her, as it usually is, and she cried herself to sleep on the way home. Her ears actually bled a bit from it too which was a bit scary for us, but the doctor assurred us that this is common.
Just as we got home, their pulmonologist called me. Did I mention I LOVE this doctor! She's simply wonderful. So, she wanted to know what was going on with the girls. I proceeded to tell her everything. She gave me some info on using another asthma medication we have if it's absolulely necessary, and also told me to continue with the antibiotic. She felt that because Anna not only had the spike in fever last night but also a low grade fever for several days, she has an infection her body is fighting, and it would be best to keep her on the antibiotic to prevent her from possibly developing pneumonia. She also said that if the kids are not getting better by Monday, they will most likely need to start the Orapred.
So, we are home. The girls are resting, drinking fluids, and taking their big ole' bucket full of meds.
We'll update again on Monday probably.
Thank you for the prayers and kind works! They love you all!!!
Oh! And on a side note, Meredith no longer sleeps in a crib! Last night was her first night in a big girl bed, and she did wonderfully! She slept in it the entire night, never fell out, and didn't come out of her room until we went in to get her this morning. Such a big girl now!
Thursday, August 7, 2008
It's here a bit early...
We usually don't get hit with this until early fall, but it's already here. The girls are sick. It started this past Saturday evening with Anna, just a little cough. Mere started showing signs on Monday. She is miserable today. I'm actually trying to decide right now whether or not to take her to the urgent care place here because I have a gut feeling her typical croup will show up in the middle of the night tonight as it usually does. We'll see.....I'm hoping for the best so she can feel well and rest, both of them. They are on their routine meds when this happens, nebulizer, inhaler, allergy meds, cough meds......you name it, they're on it. I'll update tomorrow probably. I play to get them into the doctor tomorrow so we don't go into the weekend with this.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
New updates w/Pulmo & an ER visit
ANNA
Anna saw her pulmonologist last Wednesday, the 4th. The usual breathing assessment she does there showed that she actually had higher levels of inflammation of her airways than a few months ago when there. We recently decreased her Flovent inhaler dosage from twice a day to once a day. The pulmonologist was going to make that adjustment at this visit so she was fine with us having done that a week prior. She said the slight increase in inflammation might have been due to the decrease in Flovent, and she needs time to acclamate, or she might be coming down with something over the next week or so.
Anna will go back to see this doctor in late August. If at that time she's been healthy with no major flare ups, she will go off of the Flovent completely. If she has trouble from there, she can simply go back on it. Now, if she has been sick or had trouble with her asthma by the time we go back in August, she will have to continue taking the Flovent. It has been wonderful for her so far.
Her iron has come up a good deal. However, her iron saturation and iron stores are still not where they should be so she has to continue with the iron supplement. When we go back in August, if the levels are still low, she will have to take a larger dose of iron each day. If they are where they should be, she can stop the iron supplement and just take a children's mulitvitamin that has iron in it.
Today, Sunday the 8th, she has a bit of a mucousy cough so we're watching her closely.
MEREDITH
Meredith developed a fever of 102 Friday night. We noticed it around 7 :30 pm, and gave her Tylenol. We had to then give her Motrin at 10:30 pm because it had still not come down with just the Tylenol. I suspected she had an ear infection, yet again. She slept fine until about 4:15 am. She woke up from a cough that had just shown up. It was, of course, as is common with her, a croupy cough. I brought her into our bed so she wouldn't wake up Anna, and we went back to sleep for about 15 minutes. She then woke up again from the cough, and was gasping for air. She was really struggling to get air in, and her chest was caving in when inhaling. She was retracting (breathing abdominally) which is a sign of difficulty breathing. So, Ryan listened to her, and then she and I packed up to head to the ER. Ryan called them to give them the heads up that we were on our way, and filled them in on her symptoms.
We arrived there around 5:20 am, soon received a breathing treatment of cool mist (saline water), and waited to see the doctor. This was the ER I used to work in. The staff were wonderful. About 45 minutes later, the doctor came to assess Mere. She had some wheezing, but overall was doing better than when we had first arrived. She DID have an ear infection and croup, as I suspected. So, the doctor gave us prescriptions for, Orapred (oral prednisone), an antibiotic and told us to use our nebulizer for her as needed (Xopenex). They gave her a dose of the Orapred before we left. At this point, her fever was only 100, and she started to act as though she was on her way to feeling better.
We've been resting all weekend, and she's almost back to her normal spunky self. The Orapred is always great.
Mere was supposed to be rechecked by her ENT this coming Wednesday, the 11th, but the office cancelled our appointment a few days ago. I have rescheduled it for July 2nd. At that time, the ENT will be able to tell us if the fluid in her ears from this hopefully resolved infection that she has now is gone. If so, that's a great sign because her ears have had a lot of trouble with the fluid draining properly, it affects her hearing, and that's why she's been seeing the ENT. If they have not drained properly or the infection is still present, he will be discussing with us the next step to take with treating this recurring problem with her ears.
Thank you everyone for your get well wishes and prayers. The girls, overall, have been quite healthy over the past few months. It's been so encouraging to see the progress Anna's making since we removed the problem foods from her diet.
Anna saw her pulmonologist last Wednesday, the 4th. The usual breathing assessment she does there showed that she actually had higher levels of inflammation of her airways than a few months ago when there. We recently decreased her Flovent inhaler dosage from twice a day to once a day. The pulmonologist was going to make that adjustment at this visit so she was fine with us having done that a week prior. She said the slight increase in inflammation might have been due to the decrease in Flovent, and she needs time to acclamate, or she might be coming down with something over the next week or so.
Anna will go back to see this doctor in late August. If at that time she's been healthy with no major flare ups, she will go off of the Flovent completely. If she has trouble from there, she can simply go back on it. Now, if she has been sick or had trouble with her asthma by the time we go back in August, she will have to continue taking the Flovent. It has been wonderful for her so far.
Her iron has come up a good deal. However, her iron saturation and iron stores are still not where they should be so she has to continue with the iron supplement. When we go back in August, if the levels are still low, she will have to take a larger dose of iron each day. If they are where they should be, she can stop the iron supplement and just take a children's mulitvitamin that has iron in it.
Today, Sunday the 8th, she has a bit of a mucousy cough so we're watching her closely.
MEREDITH
Meredith developed a fever of 102 Friday night. We noticed it around 7 :30 pm, and gave her Tylenol. We had to then give her Motrin at 10:30 pm because it had still not come down with just the Tylenol. I suspected she had an ear infection, yet again. She slept fine until about 4:15 am. She woke up from a cough that had just shown up. It was, of course, as is common with her, a croupy cough. I brought her into our bed so she wouldn't wake up Anna, and we went back to sleep for about 15 minutes. She then woke up again from the cough, and was gasping for air. She was really struggling to get air in, and her chest was caving in when inhaling. She was retracting (breathing abdominally) which is a sign of difficulty breathing. So, Ryan listened to her, and then she and I packed up to head to the ER. Ryan called them to give them the heads up that we were on our way, and filled them in on her symptoms.
We arrived there around 5:20 am, soon received a breathing treatment of cool mist (saline water), and waited to see the doctor. This was the ER I used to work in. The staff were wonderful. About 45 minutes later, the doctor came to assess Mere. She had some wheezing, but overall was doing better than when we had first arrived. She DID have an ear infection and croup, as I suspected. So, the doctor gave us prescriptions for, Orapred (oral prednisone), an antibiotic and told us to use our nebulizer for her as needed (Xopenex). They gave her a dose of the Orapred before we left. At this point, her fever was only 100, and she started to act as though she was on her way to feeling better.
We've been resting all weekend, and she's almost back to her normal spunky self. The Orapred is always great.
Mere was supposed to be rechecked by her ENT this coming Wednesday, the 11th, but the office cancelled our appointment a few days ago. I have rescheduled it for July 2nd. At that time, the ENT will be able to tell us if the fluid in her ears from this hopefully resolved infection that she has now is gone. If so, that's a great sign because her ears have had a lot of trouble with the fluid draining properly, it affects her hearing, and that's why she's been seeing the ENT. If they have not drained properly or the infection is still present, he will be discussing with us the next step to take with treating this recurring problem with her ears.
Thank you everyone for your get well wishes and prayers. The girls, overall, have been quite healthy over the past few months. It's been so encouraging to see the progress Anna's making since we removed the problem foods from her diet.
Friday, May 16, 2008
Update for May
Meredith saw the allergist on Wednesday. She informed us that Meredith's allergy (RAST) testing was great with the exception of three things. Meredith is allergic to eggs. She has a mild allergy to beef, wheat and bananas. We had already removed the eggs from her diet several weeks ago because someone from the allergist's office called to tell us to do so until we saw the doctor again to review the results.
While we were there, she also talked with us about Anna. Anna has been doing well for the past few months. We reviewed her latest lab results. They showed that in addition to her already known allergens, Anna is also allergic to turkey, oranges, banana, corn and sesame. We already knew about the sesame. Her allerginicity to banana and corn is much lower than some of her other foods.
While she is allergic to turkey, the doctor explained to us that some of the protein is changed when the meat is cooked. Some patients with an allergy to that meat are able to eat it in its cooked form.
When Anna saw her gastroenterologist a month ago, he advised us that it was okay to feed her nuts and peanut butter although her testing results showed several nut allergies. He felt that they were low enough to not cause any concern.
The allergist strongly disagreed with him on Wednesday. She explained that Anna already has formed antibodies to the several nuts and peanuts (not actually a nut....a legume). The longer she continues to consume these, the longer she will continue to build more antibodies to them until eventually she produces a strong reaction to them, possibly an anaphylactic reaction. The doctor explained that unlike almost all other food allergies, the allergy to nuts NEVER goes away.
So, our next step is for Ryan and I to sit down this weekend and make a list of what MUST be removed from both of the girls' diets. Then we will make a list of foods that are lower allergens that we will remove some.
We recently stopped giving Anna rice milk and switched to soy milk. She's been okay on it so far, but she doesn't really drink much milk, in any form, anyway.
We will retest Anna for all of these allergies around the age of 9. We are now able to stop giving the Zyrtec every day. If her skin itching returns we will have to keep her on it every day again.
So far it's getting better! She sees her pulmonologist in a few weeks.
While we were there, she also talked with us about Anna. Anna has been doing well for the past few months. We reviewed her latest lab results. They showed that in addition to her already known allergens, Anna is also allergic to turkey, oranges, banana, corn and sesame. We already knew about the sesame. Her allerginicity to banana and corn is much lower than some of her other foods.
While she is allergic to turkey, the doctor explained to us that some of the protein is changed when the meat is cooked. Some patients with an allergy to that meat are able to eat it in its cooked form.
When Anna saw her gastroenterologist a month ago, he advised us that it was okay to feed her nuts and peanut butter although her testing results showed several nut allergies. He felt that they were low enough to not cause any concern.
The allergist strongly disagreed with him on Wednesday. She explained that Anna already has formed antibodies to the several nuts and peanuts (not actually a nut....a legume). The longer she continues to consume these, the longer she will continue to build more antibodies to them until eventually she produces a strong reaction to them, possibly an anaphylactic reaction. The doctor explained that unlike almost all other food allergies, the allergy to nuts NEVER goes away.
So, our next step is for Ryan and I to sit down this weekend and make a list of what MUST be removed from both of the girls' diets. Then we will make a list of foods that are lower allergens that we will remove some.
We recently stopped giving Anna rice milk and switched to soy milk. She's been okay on it so far, but she doesn't really drink much milk, in any form, anyway.
We will retest Anna for all of these allergies around the age of 9. We are now able to stop giving the Zyrtec every day. If her skin itching returns we will have to keep her on it every day again.
So far it's getting better! She sees her pulmonologist in a few weeks.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Meredith's results
Got her lab results today. The only thing she is allergic to is eggs. Thank goodness it's only one thing!
Too bad though. This little girl actually loves eggs.
Too bad though. This little girl actually loves eggs.
Friday, April 25, 2008
Great News!!!
We received the results from Anna's latest lab tests. She is not allergic to anything else we tested for.
Anna saw her gastroenterologist yesterday. They have a dietitian on staff so she saw her as well. The doctor reviewed all of Anna's past lab results and confidently told us that she is not allergic to everything the allergist said she is. He said that even people with no food allergies sometimes show up with a slight positive reaction because we all have antibodies to foods.
So, Anna's diet is no longer as limited as it was. The only things she can NOT have are (in order of severity): eggs, milk, beef and soy. Isn't that great?! We are thrilled!
He did ask us to watch her to see if she possibly has a wheat intolerance (not allergy). He said that a lot of times children have trouble with wheat intolerances. They can have a few crackers and such and not have a problem, but wheat in higher quantities makes them sick. She's not getting a lot of wheat right now so we'll keep an eye on that.
We did discuss the peanut/nut issue. He said that she barely reacted to the nuts and because she has eaten nuts and peanut butter almost every day for three years, it is highly unlikely she'll ever have a negative reaction. He said we can resume feeding her all nuts/nut products!!! She's very happy as she LOVES nuts! You should have seen her little face light up when she heard she can have some of her foods back.
The doctor put her on Prevacid to treat acid reflux. Our insurance does not cover it so the doctor is in the process of trying to get the insurance company to override that and cover it anyway. We should know something about that by next week.
If she is having acid reflux (he's not sure), then by the Prevacid calming that down, we would see a great improvement in her airway inflammation.
We return to see him in three months, end of July. If she has improved by that point, we will just continue with the Prevacid. If she has not improved enough, he will then decide what testing to do. There is some concern about lower GI issues because Anna's daddy has Crohn's Disease, but it wasn't a huge concern to the doctor yesterday.
I will update again next week after I've received Meredith's lab results.
Anna saw her gastroenterologist yesterday. They have a dietitian on staff so she saw her as well. The doctor reviewed all of Anna's past lab results and confidently told us that she is not allergic to everything the allergist said she is. He said that even people with no food allergies sometimes show up with a slight positive reaction because we all have antibodies to foods.
So, Anna's diet is no longer as limited as it was. The only things she can NOT have are (in order of severity): eggs, milk, beef and soy. Isn't that great?! We are thrilled!
He did ask us to watch her to see if she possibly has a wheat intolerance (not allergy). He said that a lot of times children have trouble with wheat intolerances. They can have a few crackers and such and not have a problem, but wheat in higher quantities makes them sick. She's not getting a lot of wheat right now so we'll keep an eye on that.
We did discuss the peanut/nut issue. He said that she barely reacted to the nuts and because she has eaten nuts and peanut butter almost every day for three years, it is highly unlikely she'll ever have a negative reaction. He said we can resume feeding her all nuts/nut products!!! She's very happy as she LOVES nuts! You should have seen her little face light up when she heard she can have some of her foods back.
The doctor put her on Prevacid to treat acid reflux. Our insurance does not cover it so the doctor is in the process of trying to get the insurance company to override that and cover it anyway. We should know something about that by next week.
If she is having acid reflux (he's not sure), then by the Prevacid calming that down, we would see a great improvement in her airway inflammation.
We return to see him in three months, end of July. If she has improved by that point, we will just continue with the Prevacid. If she has not improved enough, he will then decide what testing to do. There is some concern about lower GI issues because Anna's daddy has Crohn's Disease, but it wasn't a huge concern to the doctor yesterday.
I will update again next week after I've received Meredith's lab results.
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