Update on Kaytie

I know it's been forever since I wrote a regular old blog post. Things around here have kept me quite busy these past few months, and my family is, of course, my priority...so alas, my blogging has taken a break for awhile. Hopefully I'll be back to writing soon. I am, however getting in quite a bit of reading and can't wait to catch everyone up on great reads! For now though, here's an update for those of you who have been following what's going on with our sweet little girl.

Kaytie developed a really nasty cough about 4 months ago. It coincided with allergy season and Kai had terrible allergies, so we thought it was probably just that and treated it as such. However, she never got any better. For the past 4 months she's had coughing fits nearly every night that would continue until she threw up. It has been absolutely exhausting for her and for mommy, who would have to try to keep her calm and change sheets multiple times, and of course is quite pregnant and exhausted anyway.

I took her to the doctor at the end of May/beginning of June. They did a chest x-ray which came back fine and told us it could be one of three things- allergies, asthma or acid reflux. They decided treatment of reflux was the easiest so they would try to rule that out first. They also informed us that it could take up to a month before we would know if it had worked. She got worse. The coughing fits started to come several times a day and the wheezing started. The poor little thing just struggled all the time.

On our way home from Florida last weekend she had a coughing fit that lasted from the time she woke up in Chattanooga until Murfreesboro, KY. We tried everything we could think of to make it stop from honey to Vicks (which only succeeded in making her smell like a nursing home and making mommy slightly queezy). So Monday morning we were back to the doctor. He put her on albuterol treatments through a nebulizer and scheduled an appointment with a specialist.

Much to our relief, the albuterol treatements did seem to help, but they had to be given to her at least three times a day and as soon as one would wear off, the coughing and wheezing would ensue again, so this was obviously not going to be a great long-term option.

This morning we saw the specialist. They did an allergy skin test (poor sweet darling) and found that she has no major allergies. (aside from the sunscreen one, but that's a whole different story) They did do an x-ray of her face to rule out chronic sinusitus, but that doctor said he was fairly certain in was not that, he just wanted to be thorough.

So she has been "tentatively" diagnosed with asthma. I say "tentatively" because apparently they cannot give a firm asthma diagnosis on a child that small. She'll be reevaluated periodically and when she's a few years older she'll be given the lung function test that can tell them for sure. For now though, she will be treated as though it is asthma.

She'll get two doses of a preventative medicine through her nebulizer per day to start with. We're hoping that we'll be able to ween her down to one and eventually put her on a pill instead of the breathing treatment, but that will probably be a ways down the road. She'll also use the albuterol treatments as a "rescue inhaler" type of treatment when she has her coughing/wheezing fits. The doctor is hoping that once we get this under control we won't have to do the "rescue" treatments more than twice a week.

It's a bit overwhelming to think of having to do multiple breathing treatments a day with her for a long period of time, since she doesn't sit still very well on her own yet, and we're about to have our hands quite full here in a few weeks when the baby gets here. It will also mean that we have to keep a closer eye on her during cold/flu season as her condition can make these illnesses more serious. And of course, it's not exactly convenient to tote around a nebulizer machine whereever you go (along with four small children and their things) in order to make sure she can get a rescue treatment if she needs one. But I am so grateful that we may be getting my sweet girl some relief. She's struggled with this for so long. Now, in the next couple of weeks we may get that coveted full night's sleep we've been so desperately needing (just in time for it to be interrupted by night time feedings. haha)

Thank you all for your prayers for Kaytie during this time. She handled the tests like a champ. We got her a "bubbles the fish" mask for her nebulizer so hopefully it won't be as difficult to give them to her. We shall see. Any bets on whether my kids fight over "bubbles the fish"?