Thursday, November 13, 2008

Hannah

My precious Hannah has a tough run of it lately. I'm a bit overwhelmed and not too sure which way to turn.

I've blogged about Hannah's balance and coordination issues, about her new shoe inserts, about the MRI and physical therapy. Well, Tuesday we had a follow-up post MRI with the neurologist. As I shared, the MRI was clear. Apparently, that doesn't rule out cerebal palsy. He confirmed that she does have very mild CP. I'm shocked. The good news is that....it is what it is....it's not progressive and she'll just continue on with her PT. But, I'm shocked and can't seem to process it all. I mean, it's obvious now that she has more than just "clumsy" issues. When PT pins her down on tasks, you can see leftside involvement too.

And, as if that's not enough news for the week, yesterday she was diagnosed with asthma. Since 2 years of age, she's had middle of the night croup attacks out of the blue. If you've never experienced one, they are scary!! She gasps for air, barks like a seal, has stridor, etc. Our routine is to rush to her, head to the little bathroom, turn on the hot shower. Jason sits with her trying to keep her from freaking out, while I rush to the frig to grab the steroids. You're supposed to grow out of the croup. It's caused by a virus, but children get it because their passages through their voicebox are small. She should have grown out of it by now.

She's had 2 attacks since starting kindergarten in Aug. Recent events (including inaccurate shot records, weight recording, missing the flat feet & CP, etc) caused me to change pediatricians. Yesterday I took her to a new one because she's had a cough (so bad that she threw up the night before) for 2 weeks, since her last croup attack. This is not even close to being the first time she's thrown up for coughing so hard. It is not uncommon at all for her to cough for 2 hours at night when she's sick like this. I've talked to every pediatrician that would listen at the old office.

Well, the new one yesterday immediately said she has asthma. She's now on nebulizer albuterol treatments. Her O2 sats were 89 and 91 yesterday before the treatment. This all confuses me too because I thought that asthma was the acute attacks with exercise and such. I guess I have a lot to learn.

Gotta run. Austin's ready for me to get off the computer. ;-)

6 comments:

Beth said...

Candy, you are the strongest person I know. There are no parents on earth better equipped to deal with these issues than you and Jason. I will keep you in my prayers.

Anonymous said...

Candy, I am so sorry about Hannah's health issues. All of you are in my prayers. I hope she is feeling better now that she is getting proper treatment for the asthma. Hugs to all of you. I can only imagine the shock you must be feeling.
Sarita

Anonymous said...

Hugs for you all Candy, it's all so difficult to deal with. At least you're beginning to get some answers now, and I'm sure the new treatment will help with Hannah's asthma. She's so beautiful and very precious, very special.

Big hugs.

Tracy Batchelder said...

It sounds like you're on the right track now with physical therapy and treatments for asthma. You should start seeing some improvement, which will be encouraging.

Marcia said...

(((hugs))) asthma can be triggered by different things, yes. Thinking about you and your little girl. I'm glad you changed peds.

Catherine said...

This is what Sam has...the doc calls it reactive airway disorder, rather than asthma. Every day sorts of things will cause his airway to constrict and he will have trouble like you describe. We keep it under control with daily doses of Claritin and a rescue inhaler as needed. It's not bad once you find a combination of treatments that works for you. And it sounds like your new ped is on the right track. Hang in there. {{{hugs}}}