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 =(