No Allergies (this SHOULD make me happy)

Well, today was the day. We had Austin's much-anticipated allergy appointment. They did a skin prick test for 16 different environmental and pollen things, and the results were NEGATIVE. "Not allergic to anything." The doctor did say she wants to test him again when he gets closer to 5, but at this point he's been given an Asthma Treatment Plan even though they can't diagnose him with asthma. A good friend (whose sons both have asthma) tells me that it's simply a matter of a long enough history of the preventive working--a big enough pattern developed. If we try this for awhile and then stop and it returns (again and again), then we know it's asthma.

The plan for now is to give him a nebulizer treatment each night with Pulmicort in it. And if he gets a flare-up, we give the reactive medicine, Albuterol. The allergist said that we might could start doing an inhaler soon, but that would mean we have to do two puffs twice a day instead of one nebulizer session at bedtime. The nebulizer combined with storytime at bedtime seems to be working ok, so I don't want to mess with that just yet.

After we finished with the appointment we had some time to kill while waiting for Daddy to finish his physical which was just down the hall from Austin's appointment, and we occupied some of that time by doing a series of photos with his sticker and sucker. ;-) He was in pretty darn good spirits after just having spent an hour and half in a doctor's office. Thanks, Cars! We went to Chick-fil-a for a fun lunch afterwards and he seems totally normal now. I had prepared for the worst and it was MUCH better than I had feared--the during AND after. He ate a good lunch and took a great nap. Now it's off to swim lessons!

Here are some pictures from today.

We started watching Cars pretty much right away. This is him occupied while I'm answering 3,254 questions. 

Ready for testing to begin.

And once it had begun.

The H and top right under A are histamine control markers. It's just to make sure he didn't have antihistamine in his system. They are the only thing that had any sort of reaction. 

You're supposed to lie down the whole time, so they don't bleed into each other, but he kept wanting to itch his back and thus we sat up, lay down, sat up, and lay down again. All while watching Cars. Thank God for iPads. Seriously.

And once we were done, they wiped off his back and then put some lotion on it. Hours later it looks totally normal except the writing they did. Here is his photo shoot with his "prizes."

A Tow Mater sticker!

Here's hoping (praying, really) that this is the answer. If the preventive doesn't get rid of the cough, I think (as far as I understand it) we're back to square one and that's not a place I want to end up. Pray with us?

Graham's Progression Photos -- 10 Months

Graham was NOT interested in taking pictures this month. It is by pure miracle we got anything worth sharing!

9 Months.
8 Months.
7 Months.
6 Months.
5 Months.
4 Months.
3 Months.
2 Months.
1 Month.
1 Week.

Planes! (Austin's first movie experience)

We took Austin to see the movie Planes for his first movie theater experience. While I'd say it went well and I have no specific complaints, I don't think it's something we'll be doing for another year or so. We left Graham home with a sitter so that just the three of us could go. It was nice to have that time with him. Austin seemed to enjoy the experience, but kept asking where McQueen was, and once Seth finally took the popcorn away (we were worried he'd get sick from eating so much!), Austin was much less ready to sit still. Thankfully, that was toward the end of the movie so it didn't last long.

Here are some fun pictures from the afternoon movie experience.

Reactive Airway Disease

***Here's a copy of an email we sent recently with an update about Austin's health.***

Friends and Family-

I'm writing with an update about Austin. As many of you know, he has had a recurring cough for about the past year. Every other week, it seemed, he was coughing again. Sometimes it would be accompanied by other cold-like symptoms, but often it wasn't. Well, we finally think we have an answer!

As of yesterday, Austin's doctor diagnosed him with Reactive Airway Disease. Here's a link for a quick article: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/reactive-airway-disease/AN01420. There are many more if you're interested in doing more research. Help yourself.

What we've learned in the less-than-24-hours since the diagnosis (that is to say, we're still learning, but I'm sending you what we believe to be true at this point) is that you can't officially diagnose asthma in kids as young as Austin (he'll be 3 in October), but he has the signs/symptoms of asthma. Our doctor said there are three kinds of asthma: 1) exercise induced 2) allergen induced 3) virus induced. The first one appears around age 8 and continues for life while the second two are usually grown out of around puberty/slightly before. Austin may have both of the second kinds, but the doctor thinks he for sure has the last kind. 

This might seem like bad news, but to us (right now, at least) it feels very much like good news! He's been prescribed a preventive medicine which will go into his nebulizer machine twice a day—morning and night. This should help the airways so that he doesn't have coughing fits anymore. But should he have one, we also still have the reactive nebulizer medicine which can be combined with the preventive medicine if necessary.

This is good news because we've held him out of stuff because of the cough—not attending church, BSF, etc, for fear he has some unknown/unseen virus, but the doctor said that unless he has other obvious symptoms—fever, sneezing, runny nose, etc, to not keep him home anymore because of the cough. He said we just need to explain his situation. (Austin's been "sent home" from nursery care situations because when he gets to coughing, it sounds like he might have pneumonia or something. It's quite painful to hear. But he's never once been found to actually be sick—x-rays prove no pneumonia, swab tests prove it's not the flu or pertussis, etc, but yet he's still coughing.) We've missed many a thing because of that darn cough, and now we should 1) not have to deal with it as much/at all and 2) have an explanation to use for when he does get to coughing.

Austin has an allergist appointment in a couple weeks (August 22nd in the morning) to determine if he is allergic to any particular things (ie. cats like his Momma). The appointment is a simple skin prick test similar to what they do on adults (and what I've had done) and may take up to 4 hours. 4 hours of being in a doctor's office, a good portion of which includes having to sit still. I'd love prayer for that appointment--that the movies and apps we have loaded onto the iPad entertain him enough to sit still for accurate readings. And I want CLEAR RESULTS. I want to know YES he is allergic to XYZ things, not he 'sorta seemed to have a reaction.' This will be helpful because we can not only avoid those things (like cats, for example, should that prove to be one of them), but we can also start giving him allergy medicine to help prevent any cold-like symptoms and/or an asthmatic reaction (coughing). So, prayers on those two things would be great.

It also feels like good news because hopefully he's able to generally live a better quality of life without the cough (without having it so often/so severely). He's often awakened in the night with a cough, for example, or unable to take a good nap because he can't quit coughing. We're hoping it makes playtime and rest-time better for him. And for us. 

We're headed to his first movie theater experience today to see Planes and we're super excited to be sharing this milestone with him. (Graham will be home with a sitter, so just it'll just be Seth, Austin and I.) I'm praying he doesn't have a single cough during the movie and that the preventive medicine makes a dramatic impact on his coughing in general going forward.

Thanks for past, present, and future prayers. I'll update you once he's had that allergy appointment.

Sena

Austin's First Camp - Gymnastics, summer 2013

I enrolled Austin in his first camp this summer! It was a Gymnastics Camp that met for two hours each day for four days. It was great to get that break and spend some time with just Graham. Austin's cough got so bad after the third day, though, we pulled him and he didn't get to attend the final day. It was the day after that that we got the asthma "diagnosis." It was a great price, the Farmer's Branch Rec Center is a fabulous facility and the teacher was AMAZING. We would totally do this again next year.

He loved having her help him "hoola hoop."

And this kid loves getting stickers!