Hope In a Hospital

I promise to post the wonderfully cute Christmas post, but right now all I can think about it poor Tot.

Two weeks ago, Tot had a bad flare-up of his asthma. So bad that I said this is ridiculous, we need to go to a specialist! Now I love my pediatrician, well the one who started the practice 30 years ago. I trust him implicitly. He even brought up how he also believed it was time for Tot to see a specialist. He referred us to his friend who is a pediatric pulmonologist at the 'Children's Hospital.' The benefit of seeing a doctor that has been around awhile is when they give you a referral, your ass gets in pretty quickly, despite it being the holidays and all.

Hubby got to go with me because he already had the day off. I was really glad. I think two sets of ears are always better than one. One thing that impressed me off the bat was how close to our appointment time we were actually seen. Guys, our appt. was at 4:00, and we were seen at 4:05! Oh, and everyone was so nice! Since they only see kids, they are used to kids' antics, and they don't seem to faze anyone at all.

Turns out that Tot has been officially diagnosed as having asthma. They call it mild, but persistent. We were given a treatment plan for him that totally makes sense. The nurse came in with the new game plan as well as the 'toddler' inhaler Tot is going to use now. No more nebulizer! Yeah!!!! Tot's inhaler looks the same as the ones you've seen, it just has a tube and mouthpiece connected to it. There is the everyday medicine called Flovent that he is to take twice a day, every day. If we hear any coughing at all, we are immediately to give him Albuterol every two to three hours. Then there's the Orapred liquid steriod to give in case the other meds. don't work. The good thing about this new system is that Tot only has to have two puffs in the morning and two at night. It only takes a minute to give him, not the 5 minutes it took with the nebulizer. Tot loves it! Remember this poor kid has been on a nebulizer for nearly a year, so a puffer is definitley preferable to him.

Tot also had to have a bloodtest done to see if he has any allergies. It will only take a week to get the results, but I didn't wait. Hubby moved all of his furniture so I could get behind to clean the baseboards and vacuum up any dust bunnies. I also dusted every piece of his furniture, and got rid of anything that wasn't necessary. The less items in his room means the less dust that will settle in there. Hubby and I then got rid of all of his stuffed animals since they are a big harborer of dust. We were also told that we needed to get this device that measures how much humidity there is in any room. It must be below 35%. If not, we must get a dehumidifier to get rid of the excess. Can you say static electricity??? UGH. The things we do for our kids! We also need to put cheesecloth over the vents of the rooms he is in most often. Yeah, I went into Williams Sonoma to buy my kid cheesecloth to put over his vents. The saleswoman looked at me like I was crazy!

So, I am glad that we finally went to a specialist. I'm not happy that Tot has asthma, but it's really feels good to know all of the things we can do to help him. I now have hope that he will feel better. We now have a plan by a man who deals with this on a daily basis. I am comforted by the fact that he is the head of his department, and has been doing this for years. He knows what he is doing; no conflicting advice from three different pediatricians. I feel hopeful, but I'm still scared to death. ***
If anyone has a child who has asthma can you share your story? I think it would be helpful to know that we're not alone, and what others do to make their children feel more comfortable when they have so many meds. to take. Thank you in advance!