Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Leap Year

I don't want to jinx myself, but I may have found another piece to the respiratory puzzle. Jacob was on prednisone for about ten days and exhibited all of the side effects like roid rage and insatiable hunger. For several days after we stopped the medication, he was still asking to eat about every twenty-minutes. Anyways, he came off of the medicine last Tuesday and off the inhaler every four hours by last Friday. Then we went to a birthday party and I watched as a little boy coughed right into Jacob's face and thought "Oh dear God, here we go again". Sure enough, by Monday morning Jacob was coughing, and sneezing, and had a constant runny nose. He went back on the inhaler every four hours. I could feel the junkiness in his lungs when I held him under his arms. And he woke in the middle of the night as he does whenever he is sick. But now it is Wednesday and he hasn't gotten any worse. Usually I am preparing for a sick day from work by now and deciding whether to take him to the walk-in clinic or to call his pulmonologist. But he is maintaining a cold. I'll have to do some research but I wonder how long the effects of prednisone linger in the body. Has it offered him some protection? Maybe he needs to be on a low maintenance dose during the cold season? No, I am not a doctor but I might as well be.

Friday, February 24, 2012

February Vacation?

I have not been uninspired but I have not written for some time. Scheduling. Jacob has been to the ENT, orthopedist, orthotist. And he has been to the pediatrician's office several times and the pulmonologist's office a few times in the past month. We have not been able to resolve his respiratory problems. Reactive Airway Disease, Asthma, Pneumonia, Atelectasis. Given his response to the most recent treatment plan, atelectasis is likely, where parts of his lungs get stuck together because there is an excess of mucus in the airways. He was on prednisone as well as antibiotics and inhalers. His lungs are not able to clear the mucus but I still don't know if it is because of his hemiparesis or because his lungs are damaged. He has not had another ear infection since the tubes were placed.

Jacob has been doing well otherwise. His mobility has improved so much that I am thinking of asking his PT to evaluate his walking, running, ascending, and descending without his brace. I believe... especially after spending two hours watching him play in a bouncy house and running around in his socks. Jacob's speech is also improving. He strings more words together with fewer pauses in between. He uses his own phrases from his own vocabulary. "Mommy... You wait here... Me be back... Kay". He says "freeday" (threeday) when I say "tomorrow" because I think he thinks "today" is twoday. And he says his name is "Jay-juh Bor-gedduh".

He is also very stubborn, opinionated, demanding, feisty... which along with having a Matthew in the house, makes for a challenging week off from school.