Pointless Ramblings

WARNING: This is about to get really boring.

For family/people who care:
Owen went to his Pediatric Pulmonologist's office this morning. It was not a highlight of his day -- or mine.

The first tantrum occurred because he didn't want his blood pressure taken. Some Spiderman stickers helped that get accomplished. I talked to the nurse practitioner for awhile about his symptoms, etc. for about ten minutes. Owen had stopped taking his QVAR inhaler in May since his doctor wanted to see if he had outgrown the asthma. Clearly he has not! We've had a month of some of the worst asthma issues he's ever had. He hasn't enjoyed a cough-free night in almost a month.

I told the lady that Owen's nose always seems to be bothering him, and suspected allergies even though he had extensive allergy testing (negative results) done a couple of years ago. She said a lot can change in that time period, and asked if I wanted to do a skin allergy test on him. I said OK, as flashbacks of previous allergy testing haunted me.

This time proved to be almost as horrific. Two nurses and I had to hold him down on his stomach as testing was run all over his back. He screamed bloody murder and I'm sure he thought they were trying to kill him. Two nurses got hit in the process. Fifteen minutes later, we got the results. He tested negative in everything except dust mites. They recommend washing his sheets once a week in hot water, vacuuming his carpet once a week, taking all stuffed animals out of his bed (that's not going go over well) and using an allergy-proof mattress cover and pillowcase.

The visit was topped off with a flu shot, which he enjoyed about as much as the aforementioned testing. He was furious that they had put a Snoopy Band-Aid on his arm and immediately ripped it off and threw it on the ground.

Such a sweet boy sometimes.

So now he takes a little bit of Zyrtec every day as well as two puffs of an inhaler twice a day, and hopefully that will keep the cough away for awhile. I hate to keep him so heavily medicated, but at the same time we both need sleep, and the last thing I ever want to hear again is him crying in bed, "Mommy, I can't... stop... coughing..."