Pointless Ramblings

Owen had a follow-up appointment with his pulmonologist this morning. Though it was nice to be able to report that the Prednisone had killed his cough, I knew from experience that the success would likely be short-lived. Therefore, he was prescribed a low-dose inhaled steroid (like what big people take for asthma) to take twice a day as a preventative measure at least through the spring.

In the past, Owen's doctors have always stopped short of diagnosing him with asthma -- I think they like for kids to be a certain age before they give a definitive diagnosis. However, today we got about as close to an asthma diagnosis as we're probably going to get. He said that some kids with asthma don't necessarily have wheezing or difficulty breathing, but do have slightly inflamed airways almost ALL the time. When they get colds or come in contact with certain irritants, the airways are inflamed all the more which causes the persistent cough. (I could have told him that a long time ago just based on my own research, but I know that he had to rule out other problems first.)

I'm hopeful that this medicine will keep the cough away for quite a long time!