Doctors, Doctors, Doctors

As I am sure most of you know by now, Linc was recently diagnosed with RSV and a high probability of asthma.  I brought him to the doctor because he started wheezing along with his cold - the scariest sound an asthmatic mother, or the mother of a premie could ever hear!!  They sent him home with a nebulizer and directed us to give him 6 inhaled treatments a day of albuterol, pulmicort, and flovent, in addition to taking a liquid prednisone steroid every morning.

Linc has been a trooper through all of this.  It took him all of one treatment to realize that they were going to HELP him.  As long as we have Elmo or Cars on for the 10 minutes of each treatment he is fine.  He sits and inhales deeply and lets the medicines do their work.  As expected, the combination of albuterol and steroids on Linc was Like watching Twitchy from Hoodwinked!  About 10 minutes following each treatment Linc would just start running around, spinning in a circle, or just bang on things.  It would be completely adorable if it wasn't medically induced!

 The doctor informed me that we would know when to start tapering off the treatments - for he would no longer sit and inhale!  Like clockwork, 7 days after starting the treatment Linc's wheeze was gone.  Just as the good Doc said, he no longer wants to sit still and inhale.

I know most of you are thinking - RSV, all children get that!  Which is true, according to the CDC almost all children are infected with RSV by their second birthday!  In most kids, it just presents as a lingering cold.  Linc just happens to get a double whammy from having an asthmatic mother and a predisposition from being a premie (though I seriously thought we wouldn't need to worry about that "premie status" anymore).  I took the news of Linc having a high probability of asthma, in addition to having RSV, very HARD!  Believe me I know that the prognosis of asthma is good and that it is treatable and controllable.  I don't seem to weigh any of those facts in my reactions.  All I seem to think about is that fact that at some point in his life, my little boy will know what it feels like to not be able to breath.  He will experience that panic that comes with your airways closing.  He will experience the after effects of an attack and he will know that horrible feeling of one just starting.  All of these things are things that I NEVER wanted him to experience!  I have since calmed down.  I realize it was ludicrous of me to believe that he would never be touched with any form of respiratory issues (I mean the genetics etc are stacked against him).  Now I am just happy he appears to be doing better!!