Yesterday we took Nathan to an Asthma & Allergy specialist. I’ve just been having so much trouble understanding this whole Asthma thing and I feel like I am getting conflicting information from our pediatrician. Once I am told Nathan has mild asthma to use breathing treatments as needed when he is sick and then stop. Then I am told he will have to do maintenance medications from now on. Then he got a nagging cough that didn’t sound like asthma and wasn’t responding to the breathing treatments so I was prescribed two more maintenance medicines... Calgon take me away!
We still love our pediatrician and think they have done a great job helping Nathan when he is sick. But it was time to call in the specialist. I am so glad we did!
I found a truly wonderful doctor that put my mind at ease. He started by asking us questions and our concerns about Nathan and from there he gathered enough information to give us very good news. After examining Nathan, reviewing his allergy blood test from the pedi and talking with us the Specialist said that Nathan is very healthy. He said we should feel very lucky because Nathan has no allergies and in his opinion no asthma! I am so grateful to God for his blessings.
The Specialist determined that the cough was probably from a slight sinus infection that would have gone away with antibiotics but since the pedi was only treating it as asthma we were using steroids and breathing treatments that weren’t clearing it up. The cough is almost gone now so he said there was no reason to continue any maintenance medicines and just wait until Nathan gets another cold. Then we are to start breathing treatments to prevent the cold from going into a cough. If a cough develops and persists more than 2 days we are to return to the specialist. For now he is labeling what Nathan has as Reactive Airway Disease - which is a fancy term for asthma like symptoms that are not asthma/colds developing into bronchitis.
I walked out of that office with my heart soaring. I felt such relief that Nathan is doing so well and a renewed confidence that my instincts had been correct. We did not need to be using all those expensive medicines so often. In the right situation the medicines are life saving, but why over medicate when it’s not necessary. So we will keep Pulmicort, Xopenex, Zyrtek, and Dimatap in the medicine cabinet for future use as needed and Nathan can go back to being a carefree little boy!
And by the way, he says that the Specialist has good lollipops!
No comments:
Post a Comment