Asthma Diagnosis

Post date: Oct 23, 2014 12:27:36 AM

When Hannah first started daycare in late July, she quickly got her first cold. After getting better, her cough lingered. We took her to the doctor a few times and they said she was probably just getting cold after cold at daycare. We are well aware that the first year in daycare is brutal so we tried to make the best of her constant congestion and coughing. About a week before our Disney trip in September her cough became pretty bad and we were concerned she was getting pretty ill. We took her back to the doctor to make sure she was healthy enough to travel to Disney. After hearing how long the cough has persisted the doctor requested that we see a pulmonologist after our trip to have her lungs checked out. At this time the doctor's best guess was aspiration (fluid getting into her lungs after taking a bottle) because she's also very spitty. However, after going to the pulmonologist and getting chest x-rays, it was decided that she has asthma. The doctor said he was shocked how bad her lungs looked in the x-ray after hearing us talk about how happy she's been, even with all the coughing. He said she had to have been miserable and couldn't believe she was not a fussy baby because of it. I'm so proud of my little trooper!! She always smiles, laughs, and remains happy even when she's obviously not feeling good. The downside to that is that I'm worried I won't know if something is bothering her because she's just so easy to please.

Now that she is diagnosed with asthma, we have to give her breathing treatments with a nebulizer and 2 medications twice a day. She began this like a champ, as usual. However, it's been about 3 weeks and she's starting to get frustrated with it. Who can blame her?? She has to sit still with a mask on her face for about 15 minutes. Poor sweet girl.

The doctor said she could grow out of it so we'll keep hoping for that. I hate to see her have to go through this at such a young age.