I started this post last night, but was too exhausted mentally and physically to finish it. I took these pictures of Allison sleeping peacefully tonight. There's nothing more precious than a sleeping baby!!
After a trip to see the pediatrician today at 12:45 and then a visit to Children's ER this evening, we came away with a diagnosis of Reactive Airway Disease for our sweet Allison. At the dr.'s office today, Dr. Abbie referred it as Nocturnal Asthma. I had never heard of that, but it made sense to us when trying to figure out what causes Allison's problems with coughing at night.
From an early age, Allison has had more than her share of restless nights due to coughing. Before she was a year old, the nurse practitioner said she suffered from allergies and suggested we give her Zyrtec. Bill and were not comfortable giving her that medicine at such a young age, so we just tried to manage the symptoms as best we could.
Anytime Allison got a cold, she always seemed to have a cough that was very difficult to treat. A cough that would keep her awake for nights in a row. Quite a few of the colds turned into ear infections. It wasn't until we started going to a new pediatrician (when we moved into our new house) that we actually got some medicine that helped her cough which in turn helped her sleep better. Boy, was I thankful for that.
After another episode with coughing and no other apparent symptoms this past fall, Dr. Greg confirmed that Allison does suffer from allergies. He said we could do some testing to find out what she was allergic to, or we can try to treat the symptoms and see if she outgrows the allergies as she gets older. He prescribed her the nasal spray, Patanase. The first night we used the nasal spray her cough stopped. It was a
miracle drug for us. I couldn't believe the difference. With the nasal spray and the cough medicine we have managed to make it through the fall and winter so far without a single ear infection!! Yay for no antibiotics!!!!
For the past four or five nights, though, Allison has been coughing all night and the nasal spray has not worked and neither has the prescription cough medicine that has been so effective in the past.
Tonight right before dinner Allison started coughing and could not stop. After about 15 minutes of non-stop, hard coughing, Bill and I got worried. I gave Allison the Xopenex (inhaler) the pediatrician prescribed for her which was supposed to be used at night to see if that would help. The cough persisted and seemed even worse. After 30 minutes of coughing with Allison doubled over as she coughed, we called the pediatrician and the nurse on call told us to take her on to Children's Hospital.
I love having Children's Hospital so close. They are absolutely wonderful there. As I checked Allison in they went ahead and checked her pulse-ox and triaged her immediately. They told us to have a seat in the waiting room, but Allison and I went to the bathroom. Before we got out of the bathroom they had already called for her to go on back to a room.
They did a chest x-ray and a sinus x-ray to rule out pneumonia and a sinus infection. As the dr. was listening to her lungs right before we left, she heard a wheeze from Allison. I have not been able to hear any wheezing from her when she coughs. But hearing the wheeze made the ER dr. feel even more confident in the diagnosis of Reactive Airway Disease. We left with a prescription for an oral steroid and orders to use the Xopenex inhaler every four hours for 24 hours and then taper off the inhaler as symptoms improve. We are to follow up with our pediatrician in 2-5 days.
I hate the word disease!! It sounds so, so awful. While I am thankful to have a name for her persistent cough, I hate for her to have a
disease. While I am also thankful for medications that help her symptoms and allow her to sleep, I hate to be giving her so much medicine. But, with the medicine, she slept all night only coughing once or twice. I had to wake her up at 8:00 to get ready for school. I honestly cannot remember the last time I woke that child up. She's such an early riser, and she always comes and crawls in bed with me, before it is actually time to get up. I can't say that I mind that, because she is such a great snuggler. She will just cuddle up next to me and sometimes go back to sleep, or other times be perfectly content to snuggle.
I pray that this is something Allison will indeed, outgrow.
