To draw or not to draw

We have a mid-year checkup with our pediatrician the first week in July and I need to have blood draws done before then. With Samantha on a considerable amount of prednisone and inhaled steroids, as well as antibiotics, I begin to waver about the draw. We (her doctors and I) are never really sure how all this medicine impacts her results.

It fits into our schedule to have the draws done this week, but Samantha is tapering the prednisone and will be on it until at least Wednesday. I suppose I won't make a decision until later this week.

It's been a sucky start to the end of the school year. She missed nearly 3 days of the last 5 because she couldn't stop coughing and breathing was difficult. I am crossing my fingers that it's not indicative of our summer.

Back to bronchitis

We're two weeks from our next blood draw. We're alternating 88 mcg 4 days a week and 100 mcg 3 days.

Samantha has bronchitis again. We've somehow managed to go almost 9 months without breathing problems, but now that her levels are fluctuating we find ourselves in this place again. Our pediatrician was as disappointed as we were--we thought she'd outgrown it.

We're back to Prevacid, prednisone, antibiotics, and breathing treatments.

The older she gets the more I notice that she doesn't bounce back from these bouts. She used to take her treatments and be back to dancing within minutes. This time she's more tired, pale, and just over it.

Lungs and reflux

July 2013


Bug had a follow up with her pediatrician today to see how clear her lungs were. After a week on prednisone, doubled-up inhalers, and antibiotics she is still producing a lot of phlegm. Her nose lining was red too, which is indicative of either sinus problems or reflux. Since she's not had a runny or stuffy one, we can conclude reflux. It's difficult, however, because typically she'll tell me when she's refluxing. She'll said that it burns or tastes bad, but this time it's less noticeable. The doctor called it "non-acid reflux." I've yet to research it.

But since Bug has not improved with the prednisone dosage, we're scheduling an appointment with her pediatric gastroenterologist. Bug last saw him in 2009, when we thought the adult dose of the Prevacid would keep the reflux under control.

I did find in my medical log (I keep very detailed notes for Bug) that she's had a lung infection every year the week after she has swim lessons. It doesn't matter the pool, it's the same cycle every year.

She's over it as was indicated by the rolling her eyes at the doctor. And I'd like to get her off all these meds.

Unfortunately we've done this enough to know when to give her which medicine so it doesn't interact or interfere with her synthroid or reflux medicine.

GERD and Surgery

June 2013

Bug has GERD, which seems to be somehow related to the thyroid, or lack thereof. She seems to also choke more on things like water. So when she swims she tends to choke pool water. For most kids this would be normal and insignificant, but the last three years we've noted that Bug begins with pulmonary symptoms within a few days.

She aspirates and within days she's got a phlegmy cough. We attempted to double up the Prevacid dose from 30 mg to 60 mg a day and to feed her lunch at least an hour before swimming. That didn't work so now we're treating with 60 mg prednisone, Xoponex inhaler, and antibiotics.

Last August we had the same scenario but I didn't get on top of it quickly enough. Bug went from moderate coughing to downright scary, "do you know the location of the nearest hospital coughing." And I want to do anything I can to prevent this, but the pediatrician and I have seemed to max out our remedies.

Today he suggested we go back to the pediatric gastroenterologist and discuss Nissen fundoplication or esophageal sphincter surgery. The pediatrician has had other similar patients who often wind up with pulmonary problems with successful surgeries.


It's difficult to think about agreeing to surgery for an 8 year old, but I can't imagine what longterm steroidal use will do to her development. It's certainly a lot to think about.