Started with a runny nose, turned into little cough, then major wheezing and trouble catching her breath. Pretty scary. Happened fast. Definitely not like anything I've ever seen. Much different than being "sick." That week we had done all the normal stuff we do when we get colds like elderberry, probiotics, tea, honey and lemon, natural cough syrup, essential oils, cool mist humidifier, but none of it was working and we didn't know why. Usually we can kick whatever virus we have pretty quick using all of that...
Long story short, Sophia woke up from a nap on a Friday afternoon having a real hard time breathing. I sent some videos to my sister-in-law, Nikki, asking if I should bring her in (she's one of Sophia's pediatrician's nurses) and she showed the videos to the doctor. He took one look and said it was asthma. We were able to get all medicines and a breathing machine within an hour and scheduled an appointment for the following Monday. We are so grateful for Nikki. I feel like we're always asking her something about Sophia or needing this and that, and she never seems to mind. At our appointment on Monday her pediatrician said the asthma is because she was premature and she'll probably always have respiratory issues. Wow.
He has her on a daily preventative medicine and another one to take during flare ups. And it has been a journey! We've had serious behavior issues since starting all of the medicine. It was like a light switch. Full blown tantrums, yelling/screaming/crying/hitting, extremely hyper, melt downs over tiny things... Lots of things we've never seen from her all happening within 24 hours of starting the meds. Blah. Sure some of it is her age but I'm telling you, we saw a drastic difference in her almost immediately. It's been tough. We mostly just feel bad for Sophie. Poor little girl. It's hard enough to sort through your two and a half year old emotions... But Aaron and I fully believe she will be healed and overcome this asthma and that it is only for a season (could be months or years, but definitely not speaking this over her life!). We're thinking it might be allergy induced, so it just might literally be seasonal. Heh. ;)
Breathing treatments were tortue for the first two or three days. So sad. But eventually Sophia got the hang of it, and she doesn't think twice about it now. She won't be able to use an inhaler until she's three, so we're still doing treatments daily for her preventative (ack!). If she starts coughing, we'll do albuterol treatments every four hours until the cough goes away, but so far we've only had to do those the week this all started.
Tia Nini came over as soon as she got off work that Friday. It took Sophia about an hour to get through the first treatment. Again. I'm so glad Nikki was there. I didn't know albuterol makes you shaky. Had Nikki not been there, I would have panicked thinking she was having another febrile seizure! Phew! This was probably the last two minutes when she finally stopped crying and kept the mask over her face.
We tried several different ways to keep her busy during a treatment, but the best way seems to be the TV. More specifically, Frozen. I don't even want to admit how many times we've seen that movie! But hey. Whatever gets the job done!
Sophia and Aaron woke up sneezing yesterday, and Sophia has had a runny nose since. She seems pretty stuffy tonight. Can't help but be a little nervous about what's to come. I'm wondering if it's from all the wind and the high pollen count. Probably is. But I do feel better knowing we're starting to understand asthma, have everything we need if she has another flare up, and that we can catch it sooner.
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