Over the weekend we could see that Aria was just breathing worse and worse and so Tina took her in to see her pulmonologist (lung function doctor) today. When Tina called this morning to explain the symptoms they immediately wanted to see her and she was in to see them within two hours.
Aria had a breathing treatment at home but three hours later, at the doctor's office, when she did the breathing test, she was only at 42% lung function. Right away they gave her two more treatments and she came up about 13%. The doctors are putting her on antibiotics, prednazone, Advair, breathing treatments every 3 hours, along with the other multiple medications she takes every night.
In three weeks, she'll have another assessment and we'll be talking about doing a bronchoscopy, which is a procedure that requires her to be put to sleep and they'll put a tube down her throat into her lungs to try and determine what is causing her poor lung function.
Believe it or not, most people can't tell she's sick unless she really starts running around too much and she starts coughing, which sometimes causes her to puke and then she's off running around again. We see it a lot at night because she does not sleep well. She's tosses around a lot, coughs, and is usually up a couple times a night crawling into bed with us where we can hear her struggle to breath.
Please pray for her that she gets better and pray for the doctors to help figure out how to help her breath better.
UPDATE 8-24-12
She didn't seem to be improving and so Tina took her back into the Pulmonologist and they are putting her on a stronger antibiotic. The blood-work is also showing her immune system is low and they are thinking of having her do IVIG infusions for a while. Next Thursday they are going to do the bronchoscopy. They think that Aria's vocal chords are closing on her because of her prolonged and intense coughing at times and so she might also have to start doing speech therapy, which is to help her breathing and vocal chords.
Positive thing
-- lung function is better
Negative things
-- possible regular visits to doctors for...
-- speech therapy for vocal chords
-- IVIG infusions for her immune system
-- bronchoscopy next week
-- more medication
Pray for....
-- Aria's healing
-- wisdom for doctors
-- finances - insurance is good but past doctors, hospital visits, co-pays, and medicines are not cheap
Praise...
-- God's always provided
-- God has protected her
-- God can heal her
-- God has plans for her
Sounds like y'all are on the road to checking this out, but, just in case you're not, make sure the doctors check for Vocal Cord Dysfunction. It is the involuntary closure of the vocal cords, and it is caused by many things (stress, physical exertion, low immunity, various fumes/smells, and allergies). I was misdiagnosed with Asthma for years before they figured out what was wrong with me. It is very serious and can be life-threatening.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your suggestion. That is something they will looking at tomorrow morning when they do the bronchoscopy. It's one of the reasons she may have to do speech therapy. You're right about how serious it is. We have a friend whose daughter has it and they've almost lost her a couple times.
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