Well, it's official.
Harper gave us a scare the other night. We were out running errands and stopped to help somebody who was stranded. He had run out of gas so we filled up a gas can and brought it to him. In hindsight and after talking to the doctor, we think the gas fumes triggered an asthma attack. About 5 minutes after dropping off the gas she started having a coughing fit and couldn't catch her breath. It is terrifying to watch your child's face turn to unnatural shades as they struggle to breath. She looked so panicked and it was such an awful, helpless feeling. Finally the coughing fit made her vomit everywhere and she got a little bit of relief. I yanked her up and ran to the car and dug through my purse and found my inhaler and tried to get her to use it. I had no idea if that was the right thing to do or not but it was the only thing I could think of. It did help her so I'm thankful I had it with me. This was the first time she had an unpredictable attack when we weren't at home with the nebulizer and it totally freaked me out.
I took her to the doctor the following day. She's had respiratory issues her whole life but he's always been hesitant to throw around the dreaded asthma term since in young children it's hard to diagnose. But that changed this week. Pretty much what we've been suspecting for a while but it still stinks. She has the classic symptoms (wheezing, coughing, trouble breathing in her sleep, etc) and her attack Tuesday night pretty much confirmed it. He switched her from nebulizer breathing treatments to two inhalers (hallelujah! 2 puffs versus 15 minute sessions every 4 hours!). For the next 4 weeks he wants her on a corticosteroid inhaler (Qvar) twice a day to help strengthen her lungs as well as a rescue inhaler (Xopenex) every 4 hours as needed. We follow up in 4 weeks to see if the Qvar is helping and to decide if we need to pursue allergy testing to try to identify her triggers.
Even with the not-so-great news, it was a good visit overall. I meant to address her breathing issues at her 2-year check up but it was the trip from hell and discussing anything that would prolong our visit quickly fell off my agenda. But it was just Harper and me this time so he was able to give me a lot of information and was very thorough. He has a 2-year old little boy with the same diagnosis and it's nice to know that he understands the parents' perspective of the disease as well.
I took her to the doctor the following day. She's had respiratory issues her whole life but he's always been hesitant to throw around the dreaded asthma term since in young children it's hard to diagnose. But that changed this week. Pretty much what we've been suspecting for a while but it still stinks. She has the classic symptoms (wheezing, coughing, trouble breathing in her sleep, etc) and her attack Tuesday night pretty much confirmed it. He switched her from nebulizer breathing treatments to two inhalers (hallelujah! 2 puffs versus 15 minute sessions every 4 hours!). For the next 4 weeks he wants her on a corticosteroid inhaler (Qvar) twice a day to help strengthen her lungs as well as a rescue inhaler (Xopenex) every 4 hours as needed. We follow up in 4 weeks to see if the Qvar is helping and to decide if we need to pursue allergy testing to try to identify her triggers.
Even with the not-so-great news, it was a good visit overall. I meant to address her breathing issues at her 2-year check up but it was the trip from hell and discussing anything that would prolong our visit quickly fell off my agenda. But it was just Harper and me this time so he was able to give me a lot of information and was very thorough. He has a 2-year old little boy with the same diagnosis and it's nice to know that he understands the parents' perspective of the disease as well.
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| Dear nebulizer, GOOD RIDDANCE. |
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