Our Little Wheezer

Yesterday I took Teda to the allergist because it seems like every single time she gets even a hint of a cold, she gets wheezy and has trouble breathing. She missed several days of preschool this last year because of this, and I just was curious if it could be more than just "it's her first year of school" or "every child gets 6-12 colds per year, each one lasting up to 1-2 weeks"... and when she gets wheezy, it's one sleepless night for all of us, with her getting albuterol treatments every 4 hours, and her being totally miserable because she can't breath and her stomach muscles hurt so much from coughing. Then she starts to get better...

Anyways, there's the background. So we went today, and they did the allergy testing on her back- they had to do like 35 little tiny pricks on her- which she told the nurse before she did it, "I was like totally freaking out at home" because she didn't want shots. (Can you believe she said that? She sounded like an 8 or 10 year old!) Well, the first half of them were tolerable for her, then she got annoyed and upset, and hated the last probably 15. They basically put a drop 35 different allergens on her back, and let it sit there for 15 minutes to see if she has any type of reaction- meaning if it gets red, swollen, or irritated. Then they come back and measure the results. And the nurse said I can't let her scratch or touch back there. Well, like a minute into it she started getting itchy and red... yikes. 14 more minutes? And by the way the boys were with me too- it was not the greatest idea to have all three of them with me for this 2 1/2 hour appointment. Live and learn! So she's screaming and saying "It ITCHES!" over and over. I'm just trying to tell her to relax and watch the movie they had playing for them, and she didn't care. She was so uncomfortable! So the nurse came back in and said I could scratch around the area, and blow on it. That helped a TON. Then they came back and measured the spots. She's basically allergic to most weeds, grass, and trees. Awesome- all of the outdoors! Poor girl.

Then they did a breathing test to measure the capacity of her lungs before an albuterol treatment and then after. She improved a bit after, but the amount she improved was typical for an asthmatic. If she didn't have asthma, she would've improved a lot more. Bummer. So she's officially been labeled an asthmatic. We were sent home with two inhalers- one she takes twice a day, and one "rescue" inhaler when it gets bad. And also some oral steriods (the evil steriods that I hope to avoid her taking again ever since it makes her so mean and aggressive!). And also some nasal spray we have to do every day. Ahhhh. Well, I'm glad they know what has been causing her to wheeze at least. And now I know that when she gets that way, she's not contagious. Because I'd been keeping her from school and playdates because I thought she could get others sick from it.

She was a total trooper, and so were the boys. We go back in 6 weeks to see how she's doing. And to talk about the possibility of allergy shots- yikes. We'll see about that- Teda decided she does NOT like shots after her 4 year immunizations, so I can't see her being excited about weekly shots. I just don't know. It's a lot to think about! Well the good news too is that our allergist is a great friend- he's an accountability partner of Zach's, so if we have any questions, he's not far! :) Here's a picture of little Te Te's back. Looks like her daddy's when he had his testing done. Owie.

I just hope she will grow out of it. I've heard from lots of moms that their kids had asthma and allergies as kids, and they grew out of it. I'm not sure how that all works, but that would be great! And I want to keep it positive for her because I can already sense myself making a big deal out of this and when I was telling Zach about it, telling him in front of her, and I don't want her to pick up that it's anything to worry about. She'll probably think it's fun to do the puffs on the inhaler, so we'll try and keep it upbeat and positive.