Kidney Boy has asthma...

Kidney Boy has been diagnosed with asthma =(

He got sick a ton last winter and his doctor said he might have it but then he got better and we didn't talk about it again. Now, he has been sick for about 7 weeks straight. He keeps getting better and then sick again. He has had ear infections 3 times, sometimes in one ear, sometimes in both. He has had 3 different rounds of antibiotics. Tuesday night, we brought him back to urgent care because while on antibiotics, he got a new fever and his breathing seemed kind of weird. He got a 3-day steroid and an inhaler to use every 4 hours. Friday morning, we went to his regular doctor for his 2-week follow-up from the most recent ear infections and his doctor said that even after 3 days of steroids, he still had the wheezing/rattling. He said it is definitely asthma.

I am so bummed. I am trying to look at it in a positive way. I asked him if he thought he'd outgrow it and he said he thinks so. I asked him if it is "bad asthma" and he said no. And at least now we know why he gets so sick whenever it is cold and we have a course of action to try to keep him from getting sick all winter.

But to hear the doctor say things like "we can't cure it so we will try to prevent the symptoms" and to have him on so much medicine right now -- he is so sick right now. My poor little Kidney Boy. I know rationally that he will be OK and that he will get better and better as he gets older. But it is just hard to get used to the idea that he has this chronic thing that makes it hard for him to breathe. He HATES the inhaler and the taste of the steroid. He screams and we have to pin him down to give it to him. He started singulair tonight -- a daily medication for asthma. It is a chewable tablet and thank God he thought it tasted good and begged for more even. Hopefully he won't always need to be on a daily medication but he has to take this for 3 weeks to get him past this crap he has now. He only needs the steroid for a couple more days and the inhaler only until the wheezing stops. He sounds like he has a whistle stuck in his lungs.

Sorry to write a book. I am in the process of researching it. I am learning a lot. I am glad we didn't stay living in NY as it seems his trigger for his asthma is the cold weather. Here in Southern CA, it doesn't get that bad. And thank God we moved the cats outside when he was born and also took the carpet out downstairs. We are going to to remove the upstairs carpet as soon as we can afford to put pergo upstairs too. Dust and dust mites are another big trigger. And nobody in our house or our families' houses smokes. Smoking is a big one too. My mom is convinced she has asthma because my grandmother smoked through her pregnancies. But the fact that Kidney Boy seems to have inherited her asthma makes me wonder if she would have had it anyway. I don't know.

Actually, I have to go help Gama pin him down for his last inhaler treatment of the night... ugghhh I hate doing this to him. If only he could understand that we have to do this to help him. It must just seem like we are being mean to him =(

My doctor said 70/30

...

that this baby

...

is

...

a

...

-nother BOY!!!

hehehe... Looks like I really am a vending machine stocked with boys!

I wasn't supposed to get an u/s or anything today but she couldn't find his heartbeat with the doppler so I asked her if while she was looking on the u/s, if she could just take a peek. I said I knew it was super early but just a peek just in case we actually could get a clear view. She said it could be a lump of cord so she wouldn't say for sure that it is a boy but that it really does look like a pee-pee there. And it really does! Baby looks good and healthy. Heart rate 158. I go back on Jan. 8 for my big u/s! =)

Now for the picture...

Junior's soccer injury

Junior sprained his ankle on Saturday. He was playing in his last soccer game of the season and stepped funny or something as he was running after the ball. He kept playing, saying he was OK. At the end of the half, Gama (he is his asst. coach) took him out for the 3rd quarter to make sure he was fine. He said he was and went back in for the 4th quarter and then ran around for 2 hours at the pizza party they had afterwards.

Saturday night, it swelled up a little and Sunday morning it was really swollen, so we took him to the doctor. They x-rayed it and said it is just a bad sprain and he needed crutches. He is in heaven LOL He is milking it for all it's worth. Sunday afternoon, we went to a charity soccer game being played between Chivas USA and a team of Mexican soccer legends. The goalie from the legends team, who happens to have been a champion with Chivas (THE team in our family), signed one of Junior's crutches. He asked him all about the injury. Junior was just on cloud 9 LOL Then, on the way back to the car, we had to go up a flight of stairs. Gama had helped him down them but going back, Gama was carrying Chicken-hair who had fallen asleep at the game and was still groggy. He took Junior's crutches. I had Kidney Boy. And Junior made his way up the first few steps. A fellow fan coming up behind us asked if he could carry him up. Gama said, "Well, actually if you could give him a hand?" The guy scooped him up and carried him all the way up, asking him if he hurt it playing soccer and everything. It was so sweet.