As They Grow Up

Alas allergy season is upon us and poor Kanga is once again experiencing symptoms. Last spring I asked her doctor if there was anything I could do to ease her nightly stuffiness and coughing. Last fall she got a horrible cough that we were sure would turn into croup. This spring, she got stuffy right before her birthday party, and hasn't been run free since.

Well, last week, on Wednesday, her cough got bad enough for me to seek medical attention, so I had the option of an emergency room for 3-4hrs, or a walk-in clinic. You can guess which one I chose! She was just in for her 1 year check up the week before, the cough was there, and the runny nose was at 4 weeks, but her doctor said she was fine. Maybe she was, but my own allergies went crazy the weekend between, so I can understand hers getting worse too. Her runny nose was never yellow, green, etc. so that makes me think it was always allergies.

Anyway, Wednesday we went to the doctor, and he said he was worried about her, listened to her chest for about 5 minutes, her crying all the while (good inhalation that way though!), asked if she has asthma or any family history of it, and carefully chose the medicine he wanted her to take from his book. He gave her azithromycin for her cough (thought she had bronchitis) and a Ventolin syrup for her tightness.

Off to the pharmacy...Well, they had the azithromycin no problem, but no Ventolin syrup. We got an alternative, and it was delivered to our house after she got to bed. As soon as she woke up I gave her medicine to her, and back to sleep she went.

In the morning she had her medicine, well wore it more accurately. She got enough of her Ventolin wanna-be to be able to breathe better, and her breathing had only gotten worse as the night went on. I had to give her a second dose of the azithromycin though (good thing there was an extra!) because she spit out ALL of the bright red syrup.

Anyhow, the doctor also said he wanted us to bring Kanga back to the office in 3 days to see how she was doing, and prescribed 3 days of the Ventolin syrup. On Saturday, we got another pediatrician, and she recommended we continue the Ventolin. She was not congested at all, but still had tightness in her chest. I said we would need more as the first doctor had only prescribed 3 days worth, and mentioned that the pharmacy had given us an alternative to the original script as they didn't have any Ventolin syrup in stock. She asked us to get the pharmacy to call her, and I brought up the fact that Kanga wasn't really taking it! We would try and she would spit it back out... This is when inhalers were brought back up. It would be much easier to get the medicine into her if she took a huge crying breath in while fighting an AeroChamber rather than spitting syrup in my face that has to go all through her body before getting to her tight bronchioles.

Off to the pharmacy! :) We picked up her inhaler and AeroChamber, gave her the first dose, and there is a definite difference. The second pediatrician also briefly talked about if the cough doesn't subside quickly enough, then we may have to start a steroid inhaler as well. Sounding a lot like my baby girl has allergen induced asthma, but only time will tell.