my angel princess and her cough

I realize this is going to be boring for many of you, but I want to document this for the future. :)

Makena has been struggling the past 4-5 months with a chronic cough. It's really been on and off the past year, but until recently, always went away. At one point, we were treating it as an allergy induced upper respiratory infection. At that time, she was on 2 different allergy medications, and ended up going through 3 different rounds of antibiotics with the doctors thinking the infection just wasn't going away. Then, they put her on a nasal spray (antihistamine/steroid). Her cough went away, so I was hopeful she was just struggling with major allergies. I stayed on top of all of her medications, but unfortunately, the cough returned--and this time was worse, waking her nightly to the point of almost throwing up.

I took her BACK to the pediatrician to try to get some answers/relief, but every time I took her in, they couldn't ever hear wheezing, or anything concerning. Finally, they referred us to a pulmonologist (lung specialist). As scary as this was to me, I was glad to finally talk to someone who specialized in lung illnesses.(Many of you probably remember my fears during my pregnancy with Makena with her having CF-cystic fibrosis--a disease in which my uncle had, and, being pregnant/hormonal my mind has been ALL over the place as we are trying to discover what's exactly wrong with her.)

The pulmonologist spent quite a bit of time with us during the appointment, asking us about any family respiratory illnesses (of which included severe allergies, asthma, and CF). When we went to the pediatrician (before being able to get in to the specialist), they sent us home with a nebulizer and sample prescription medications, which seemed to help her...and because of that, and our strong family history of asthma, he feels that treating her as an asthmatic (which is possibly/probably triggered by severe allergies) is probably the best bet.

However, allergy tests results came back showing that she's not really allergic to many of the common allergens (except for a type of mold). We've since learned that the way he ordered the allergy test is not the best (he did a blood test, a skin prick test is much better). So, I don't know how much "weight" to put on that test because I can definitely tell there are different times of the year where allergies really seem to bother her (and that dadgum test was one of the most expensive!) Makena also had a chest x-ray done, and it showed there was bronchial swelling--what that means, other than knowing something isn't completely right, I'm not exactly sure. It could point to asthma (but could always point to other illnesses/problems as well).

After 2 weeks of little to no change in the coughing while on all the asthma meds, I called the doctor back. This is the point where I became increasingly not impressed with him. First of all, they NEVER called me with the allergy tests results (and I was told they would). He was very rushed in our conversation (as he was when he called me with x-ray results, still leaving me puzzled to what the x-ray meant).....but this time--something wasn't right. He definitely confirmed after 2 weeks we should've seen a significant improvement in her symptoms (and we hadn't). He prescribed her a strong, oral steroid to take for 3-5 days, and switched her inhaler medicine to a steroid plus a bronchodilator . I continued with this course of treatment for a week. During the phone call, I asked him if it was possible reflux (which she had as an infant) could be the cause of the cough--and if so, I had some prevacid left over from then that hadn't expired yet. I asked how many pills she should take. His response was, "1 to 2 pills, she's a big girl now, she can handle it". That response went ALL over me. He didn't ask what KIND of prevacid, the strength of it, NOTHING. I called the pediatrician's office to confirm what he said, and they told me "one pill MAX" (after confirming strength of the medication first).  During this conversation, I also requested for  a CF sweat test to be performed--which came out negative, PRAISE THE LORD (I'm not putting enough emphasis on this--but we were SO happy to have peace of mind with this test!).

I started her on the prevacid a week after being on the other meds that didn't seem to be producing results, and the cough has significantly improved. (It hasn't officially gone away, but it's ALMOST gone). Now, I'm at a cross roads-I don't know if the asthma meds (which I never stopped) FINALLY kicked in, or if the prevacid is what did the trick?? I have since switched pulmonologists to the one our pediatrician originally referred us to, and have a first visit but "follow up" appointment with them (instead of with the original doctor) in January, but, I'm beginning to wonder if we need to see a GI doctor instead. It's so confusing because it's a guessing game. In the meantime, I'm stopping the prevacid today, and hopefully if it's a reflux issue, the cough will flare up again soon.

Please pray that we get this figured out. I hate seeing my girl in a coughing fit and wish I could make it all better. I'd LOVE to get this figured out before we welcome Dalen into the world, that would be ideal--but sometimes our timing isn't God's timing...we will see how it plays out! I know He is in charge, and we are being taught patience in the process. :) Makena is a trouper, and honestly doesn't let it bother her. She's a brave little/big girl. (She didn't even whimper when they drew an entire vial of blood from her arm!!)