Plans and Changing Plans

Well, we think we know what's going on.  He has reactive airway disease.  That's what they like to call asthma before a kid is about seven years old.  The difference is that the lungs continue to mature and so they can (possibly) outgrow it, so they don't like to put the asthma label on it.  But this, we already knew.

It looks like we're seeing his first exacerbated episode, exacerbated by that darn cold.  He's doing okay.  And yeah, it's okay, not great.  When we got here, he was a mess.  They hit him hard with a bunch of steroids to open him up, and he improved a whole lot.  Since then, nothing else really has grown out as far as bacteria, but he's still struggling with his airway.  He was getting breathing treatments every two hours, and they tried to space them to three.  Yep, my little guy likes the attention.  Every two hours, okay.  Three, nope, not seeing the respiratory therapist enough. 

But they can do that on the floor, so the decision was made to ship him upstairs.  Aaron didn't like that, and apparently they forgot to ask him.  So he figured out how to tell them he really preferred being downstairs where the action is.  Right before we transferred, he started wheezing more.  He was given more albuterol, but continued wheezing.  Plus he added in head bobbing to his retractions.  (Both signs of working too hard to breathe.)  Sooooo, we're not moving, at least to the floor. 

This past week he has looked pretty good in the morning and then as the day goes on, he gets more tired, works harder and struggles more.  That I don't understand.  I mean, he's in bed.  If I was feeling lousy, I'd just go to sleep.  He just asks for more and more oxygen and stays awake.  How like a two-year-old is that to fight sleep?  And that's exactly what he's done today.  We were joking that tomorrow we ought to ask them to round on him about 4:00 p.m. instead of in the morning.  Then we could get a true picture of how he's doing and make a better plan.

So for now (and don't forget the "changing plans" part of the title), we continue breathing treatments.  When he can do well with the treatments spread out by four hours, and he's under three liters of oxygen, we can go home.  Until then, we'll be hanging out with all his buddies up here at his second home.  But at least for now, I'm thinking I like the idea of it being an asthma exacerbation than a pneumonia, especially since we seem to have the ability to control it, sort of. 

Smile, breathe and go slowly. 

~Thich Nhat Hanh