Ig & Oz Update

If was up to 40 breaths per minute this morning (despite a greatly reduced fever), so I took him to the peds. pulomonolgist this afternoon.

Spent the whole day wiping blood-streaked mucus off that kid --his nose was like a little, hideously disgusting faucet. And we went through two shirts because he kept wiping his nose on his sleeves. Really GROSS.

But of course, by the time we got to the PP, he was fine! No wheezing, moving air well, normal resp rate satting at 97%. Not that I'm not happy that he's better, but the kid pulled a total Michigan J. Frog on me.

Nonetheless, she tested him for RSV, and while we haven't gotten the results yet, the respiratory therapist was pretty sure he had it. So I'm not ruling out an overnight nosedive, and I'm definitely keeping Ig home again tomorrow for a rigid neb schedule!

Oz, on the other hand, woke up congested and coughing - just a bit - this AM. I started him on nebs, too, and given the liklihood that Ig has RSV, I'm glad I did.

We'll see how he is in the AM, but I'm not optimistic. But am I ever, when it comes to RSV?

Read this blog and tell me if that's unreasonable.

Ig May Have RSV

Ig was up the last two nights, fussing and congested. He started coughing last night, and sound pretty bad this morning.

I brought him to daycare this morning, knowing that he probably wouldn't make it the whole day. He had no fever, but the cough was a little rough and
he just wasn't himself. He didn't eat breakfast, but he wasn't as congested as he'd been either. I really didn't know what to make of his state, but I had that feeling that he really was getting sick.

Last night, btw, he had me cracking up . He woke up at 3:00 AM (!) crying, calling for me to come get him. I didn't get him right away (3:00 AM, I remind you) so he came up with some GREAT lines to lure me in. Mind you, he's 23 months old now. Here's what I heard:

• "Mom? Want up-up."
• "Mom? Want up-up. 'Kay? Kay."
• "Mom? Want juice."
• "Mom? Want cheerios."
• "Dad? Want juice."
• "Mommy? I smell poopies."

That one got me.

Back to today...he woke up from nap at daycare with 101.9. I went and got him, and he looked SO BAD and sounded so awful that I took him straight to the peds.

The peds noticed he was retracting, but didn't hear anything concerning beyond his cough, which she called a "typical asthma cough." Ears were fine, throat was fine, etc.

She did mention that they've already seen some RSV, and recommended we keep the nebs up and DuoNeb if necessary. I told her we'd watch his resps, too, and she reminded me about hospitalization for RSV. (As if I'd forget staying at the peds hospital with #1 son for five days!)

Keep y'all posted....

Loving the Autism Diva

This woman is SO on my blog roll! (Some of you may know that my oldest son is on the autistic spectrum - so this is always something we're looking to learn more about.)

Anyway, here's a bit of the Diva's take on the recent hullaballoo over Jenny McCarthy's possibly "cured" autistic son:

Evan went from being a 2-year old (diagnosed) autistic boy (with seizures)to a 5 year old autistic boy apparently still on meds to prevent seizures, in 3 years. This is supposed to be an amazing thing. It's not. Not unless we are to believe that all autistic children stagnate at their two year old level and can never learn anything or develop skills beyond that. Jenny doesn't attribute his
development to, uh, development, but to her magical mystery cures that she got by way of quack dox and quackery promoting autism websites which of course, she discovered by doing "Google research." Oh, but she's a heroine for saving her son, from... what? From being a 2-year old, low functioning, psychic with a few too many autistic traits? Jenny seems to have a hard time keeping her story straight.

This woman is FIERCE and FEARLESS. I love it!!

All of us asthma/autism moms have tried something crazy at some point - the smartest women I know give their kids fish oils, have them on gluten-free diets, have given chelation a shot...I have hand the Autism Diva the feather boa for being the voice of reason in this clearly insane world of parenting special-needs kids.

Stay tuned for a rant on RSV awareness...!

Long overdue update - asthma attacks, RSV, cyanosis and more fun!

Wow -- I can't believe how long it's been since my last post! Rather than blather on, I'm going to cut to the chase and just bullet out what's been going on:

• B - #1 son has been doing great! He's still on Singulair and Flovent 44, but he's had a GREAT winter so far. He had one asthma attack, just last Sunday - stupidly, we let him sleep in his room the night after we'd painted. But honestly, I'd have to check the blog to see when his last flare up was prior to that.
• Oz - it hasn't been as rosy for this guy. Ozzy developed a nasty case of RSV on 12/15. When I took him to the doctor on 12/18, I asked if he was wheezing, and she said no -- because he couldn't even get a deep enough breath to wheeze. We went for a chest Xray and an RSV test, and we ended up doing nebs every three hours for TEN DAYS. It was rough -- and honestly, he didn't have his color back until about two weeks ago. And now he's coughing again. He's currently on Flovent 110.
• Ig - Also coughing again. He had mild RSV at the same time Oz had it. At around that time, he started going cyanotic. His lips go blue nearly every morning, and we're not sure why. We're going to the cardiologist next month. He's also on Flovent 110.
• Me -- Finally taking off the baby weight! Or inches, anyway. Somehow, I've found the time to join Curves (30 minutes x 3 times per week is about all I can manage with a family and full-time job!) I've lost 2 inches off my waist since December -- If I can lose 10 lb. and another 3-5 inches of Iggy weight, I'll be happy!

More soon ... I wont' have this long a lapse again!

Giving thanks...for Flovent and Nebulizers

Thanksgiving's almost here, and - like last year - Oz has RSV again. At least I'm pretty sure it's RSV. We're leaving for the peds. pulmo. in 20 minutes, so I'll know for sure later.

So...yea. Once again, I'll be rushing home from my plate of side dishes (hi, lifelong veg) to administer nebulizer treatments every 3 hours around the clock.

But really, I am thankful. I'm thankful that after over four years of dealing with asthmatic babies, I finally feel like I know what I'm doing. I fearlessly administer Xopenex at the first sign of a cough, and add DuoNeb every 3 hours if things start going south. I no longer feel compelled to go to the ER every time someone's cough spirals out of control. I don't even need to see the PP *every* time one of the boys is sick.

Don't get me wrong -- I still go when we need to. I just don't PANIC anymore.

I'm also thankful that not one of my boys has required hospitalization since 2002. Let's hope I can be thankful for that again next year. :-)

...one final note: Apologies for the two month hiatus. So busy with work and three kids, and big B's Asperger's Syndrome has consumed a good deal of my maternal concern. There may be another blog in that one.