Chronic

In the spirit of blogging all that has not been blogged, I have decided I must quickly blog this blog! To catch new followers up with the happenings, I will quickly start with a preface for which I will blog.

When Brandt was almost eight months old, he had gotten really sick and started wheezing. Unfortunately, because Darrin and Nick both suffer from asthma-to-the-extreme, the pediatrician had referred us to a pulminologist. Of course, in the spirit of doing what was best for our darling baby boy, we quickly made an appointment and went to see the pulminologist. The pulminoligst listened to his lungs and ordered some blood work. He told us to continue the doing the pulmicort breathing treatments once per day and the albuterol every four hours. He added in a daily dose of Zyrtek and sent us on our way. About a week later, our pediatrician's office called us back with the results of the labwork. The nurse noted that Brandt's white blood cells were low, and the doctor started him on an iron supplement. The nurse continued to review the results with us, stating that all else was in normal ranges.

At the time, it was a huge relief to know that everything was okay with his respiration--we had just begun the process of having Brandt evaluated for speech and physical therapy. He was being attended to by a neurologist, geneticist, and cardiologist. We were diving into some very weary waters, and, at times, we had felt as if we were drowning in the tides. Because the blood work from the pulminologist had come back normal, we both took a deep breath of relief from the otherwise unforgiving waters, and we decided there was no need to continue seeing a pulminologist. We continued his breathing treatments and medicine as prescribed and went on battling the bigger waves.

Months went on, and Brant was continuously sick. He was on every antibiotic imaginable, one after another. His breathing treatments continued, but no one could tell me how I could better help him heal and prevent recurrence. Finally, after six months of him being sick non-stop, the pediatrician decided to increase his breathing treatments and add in Nasonex. That didn't do anything, the upper-respiratory infections continued to mount--one after another--until I finally decided we needed to return to the pulminologist.

In returning to the pulinologist, we received some shocking news. The doctor gave Brandt a physical exam, and then he pulled out the results of the lab work that Brandt had done six months prior. As he was going over everything with us, he got to a particular lab and paused. His face grimaced. He then asked us if Brandt was up to date on all of his immunizations. I was shocked and wanted to know the rational behind his questioning. We are good parents, so of course he was up to date on all of his shots. But, then came the explaination. The doctor said that his labs--which the pediatricain had previously indicated as normal--showed that one of the vaccines that Brandt had was unresponsive in his body. He would have to have the Prevnar vaccine again. This vaccine is meant to protect his body against different thirteen different strands of respiratory illnesses.

The doctor wrote us a prescription to start Singulair, get another dose of Prevnar, and have a face Xray. We quickly followed the doctor's orders and returned for a follow-up. Since starting the Singulair, Brandt has not been sick. In fact, he has been going strong and healthy for nearly three weeks now--which is a record for his six month's rampage of illness. The lab work found that he has a high allergy to pollen and ragweed. The Xray found that he has chronic sinusitis--which was more like a "well, duh!" The pulminologist continued to explain that there are things that can and should be done for that when he gets older, but for the meantime we just have to work on trying to prevent recurrence. He order another a 14-day dose of antibiotics and a week of steroids--which completely annoyed me because this is the healthiest he's looked in half a year, so I guess this is just one of those times when I have to trust the competency of the doctor.

In trusting the doctor, I hope that we are moving in the right direction. I hope this is a move that will get Brandt healthy and prevent further illness. But in the grand scheme of things, it just another a little wave in the riptide of life.