“You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”
- Steve Jobs
This post was to precede my last post Speak Up Mommy. I have been feeling this way for a while, but just have not been able to sit down and write. Point is: Trust your gut. You know what is best.
I would not say Ela is a "sick" child, but rather a mis understood child health wise. Since a few months of birth we have had a few health issues such as eczema, and a chronic cough at night.(Don't forget food allergies) Throw daycare into the mix at 1 years of age and you have a party of the sniffles, coughs, and every other virus imaginable. If you have followed me for a while, here was one of my conclusions after many doctors visits The Inseparable Three. So long story short, Ela had eczema at two months, and a severe food allergy reaction at 1 year so it was natural that she was diagnosed wiht Asthma due to the chronic cough about a year ago. I agree it made sense, typically kids with food allergies, especially those with eczema have asthma. So we were sent to a pediatric pulmonologist, given two inhalers and on our way.
Flash forward to the beginning of allergy season this April. Ela still had a chronic cough ONLY at night to the point that she would get sick from coughing so hard. I tried everything! On top of the inhaler, we had a purifier, humidifier, a concoction of vapor rub and elevated pillows. I was so frustrated and after many trips to the pulmonlogist and prescription steriods. I finally got sick of the same answers, overwilligness to prescribe meds and called our pediatric allergist. She also deals witht he pulmonary system, however given how far she was from our home we elected for a pulmonogist around the corner. I called her desperate. She confessed that she never thought Ela had asthma, as she never heard her wheeze. Additionally I told her how the rescue inhaler never worked when we used it. She asked questions, and really thought outside the box. We came up with a plan together. She thought it could be a few possible things:
1. Reflux- Give her a Tums 30 minutes before bed. No liquids 1 hour before bed
2. Post Nasal Drip- Nasonex spray Post Nasal Drip
3. Enlarged Adenoids
So we began to try out a few things and the plan was after allergy season (June/July) to take Ela off the inhalers. I decided not to wait. What was the worst that would happen? She did mention it would take 2 weeks to see any negative reaction as the body keeps the steroid in the system. I stopped the inhaler in the midst of allergy season in late March and Ela has been fine to date(almost 4 months). Ela had a few episodes of night coughing and we tried both the Tums, which had some improvement. The real impact was the Nasonex. This has made a huge difference so we came to the conclusion that it is post nasal drip, possibly causes by her adenoids.
This leaves us with a follow up appointment to an ENT to discuss the possible removal of her adenoids, which is a very common procedure and or solutions to help the post nasal drip. Before I agree to that, I am defiantly doing my research! We had seen an ENT when Ela was close to a year, who recommended to monitor the adenoids which were swollen then. This could also be something that Ela will grow out of by the time she is 4 when the adenoids begin to shrink naturally.
My point in all of this is, how often do doctors diagnose out of conclusion without the facts? My child is not a statistic, or a typical child with the Inseparable Three. My child deserves the full attention of the doctor and the willingness to dig a little deeper, and not just solve the symptoms. I also believe that we give too much trust to the doctors and it is ok to ask for a second opinion. The icing on the cake was the stay in the hospital a few weeks ago. I had a gut feeling and I was right. I had the same gut feeling about Ela not having asthma and guess what... I was right.As parents, we really need to listen to our instincts, because that is why we were given them!
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