Our New Pulmonologist

There was a water bottle in this picture below but I "photoshopped" it out! I just love her expression in this photo!

I added some picture's to this post because what's a blog post without fun baby picture's right? These were taken by a proffesional photog at our friends sons 1st birthday party! His wife sent me a bunch of photos that the photog had taken of Jocelyn! So sweet of her!

So off to the real topic of this post....

Jocelyn's current weight as of 10/12/10=17lbs, 4oz!

I had written earlier about Jocelyn having two "abnormal" chest xrays. We had her 1yr doctors appt and I had Jocelyn's primary doctor get all the tests we had done at our GI doctor and review them. She finally called us with all her findings at 3:30 this past Friday!

I was taken back and in a fog the whole way home after I talked to her. We had a big weekend with Steve's 1st speaking conference coming up (blog on that in a bit) and I didn't expect to be processing all the info she gave us!

After a 30 minute converstation she basically said that her first chest xray on 8/25 showed pneumonia (she didn't even have a runny nose then) and that her 9/17 the xray showed "inflated lungs" and "reactive airways". She said it could be either Asthma or Reactive Airway Disease. She said that the reflux that Jocelyn has could be annoying the lungs. In short she was right! So she agreed with our GI doctor that Jocelyn needed to see a Pulmonologist! I truely thought she was say otherwise! I really thought she would say it was fine and that we could just continue to monitor her weight gain! So that was a bit surprising to both Steve and I and took a bit to process!

We saw Jocelyn's new Pulmonary Specialist yesterday! Steve couldn't go with me this time. We were told "he is the best" and so we wanted to take whatever appt he had opened! His office is located at LB Children's hospital. I knew the layout well though since we had her sweat chloride test there and her Upper GI there! So I was thankful for that as hospital's are sometimes SO confusing!

Of course the process can never be that easy though! It was a super long day! We had to start in pediatrics radiology to get her the most current chest xray! But first I had to go to the new doctors office to get that paperwork! Then we had to wait almost an hour to get the xray! Jocelyn made friends with a little boy who I'm sure had many issues! But was the sweetest thing ever. He danced and waved for Jocelyn and kept her entertained!

Then off to the new doctor! Trying to get Jocelyn's weight, height, head measurement, temp and oxygen levels before seeing the doctor is never fun! We've done this over a bizillion times now and Jocelyn is getting REALLY good at pushing people's hands away! The nurse this time was WAY too passive. I had to help her out. I think she had just graduated nursing school or something! Poor thing!

Then of course you have to wait another 20 minutes until the doctor comes in. Trying to make sure Jocelyn doesn't open the trash can or crawl near the door! Ugh! I know all you parents know what I'm talking about! Sometimes waiting for the doctor to come in feels like forever!

Once we met the doctor I wasn't ALL that impressed...yet anyways! I mean I guess all his staff had built him up so much maybe I expected more! He was good with Jocelyn and she didn't scream TOO loud when he tried to examine her. I mean he didn't have to too much anyways because the exam was really in her xrays. He said her 3rd xray still had her lungs looking inflammed and he could see mucus in them. But when he listened to her lungs, he said they sounded clear! He asked me a number of questions like when she coughs and what triggers it. How the weather is outside when she coughs!

Finally he said that he thinks her lungs are either damaged from the RSV she had at 3 1/2 months or they have never been able to fully heal from the RSV. He also said because she has bad reflux she could have aspirated one of the time and it could have gotten into her lungs. Therefore having that rattly chest sound and congested cough that she gets on and off.

He also said it could even be smog or polutants in the air! Um OK....! He said because I have asthma and Steve is allergic to everything under the sun, it could have been inherited too! Of course that part makes me sad!

However they don't diagnose kids with asthma until they can participate in the tests themselves. Like blowing as hard as they can into a device to measure lung strength. Things like that. So basically not until 5 or 6 years old. So until then, they treat the symptoms.

So he has now put her on Pulmicort. It's an inhalant liquid that goes into her breathing machine (that we had to buy when she left the hospital after RSV) and comes out in a mist! I went home and researched it and see really good things about this medicine! So let's hope it works for her! Although it's REALLY hard to get her to hold her face still to get her to breath it in! We are working on that getting easier! This morning went MUCH better than last night did! He also gave her more Albuterol (also an inhalant) to use "as needed every 4-6 hours"!

He then ordered more blood work to test her for allergies and to check her immunity! He said that they don't do the skin allergy test on babies because they won't tolerate it and a blood test is just easier! Easier for who? Daddy is usually the blood man...as I don't like that part! But I had to do it yesterday! Thankfully the lab people at LB Memorial are amazing and take blood from kids all day long! Jocelyn only cried when they wrapped the elastic around her arm and straightened it. But as always during a dramatizing test we sing "Silent Night" and she calms right down!

So they got 4 viles from her in minutes! The tech had another lady in there with him to help. They kept commenting on her eyes and how pretty they were. Then they called in another tech to "come see this babies eyes"! Thankfully that distracted me! I didn't look at all but Jocelyn watched the whole thing! My brave girl! We get those results in about 2-3 wks!

So now we have to give Jocelyn 3 medicine's twice a day! Which seems crazy, but if it's helping her we are on board! She even points to the medicine if I forget! So funny!

So we will go back to this new doctor in 2-3 weeks. He told me he has an office in Los Al so we will be going there next time! No more hospitals! Then we have another drs appt with our GI in a month! We feel so blessed that Jocelyn's had some of the best care and doctors dealing with her! We hope this will all soon be behind us and she will continue to improve on the new medicine!