Asthma

Devin is in the middle of another asthma thing.

He was fine on Saturday, and I had no clue he would be ill on Sunday. Normally, when the boys get sick, they act puny for a day or two before. But, Devin woke up Sunday coughing and wheezing.

We gave him albuterol breathing treatments throughout the day, and I took him to the doctor this morning. The doctor wasn't terribly concerned about his current state, but she noted that the way this came on all of a sudden and that because it's been happening somewhat frequently, it's not just cold or allergies. She went ahead and diagnosed him with asthma.

Dr. Lotts told me that it's not a life sentence or anything like that. Because he's little, his airways are little. And, because he's little he gets a lot of colds. As he grows, he won't get as many colds and his airways will grow. If Trevor is any example, he will outgrow this asthma condition. I'm not sure Trevor is a perfect example. He would ge asthmatic only when he got a cold. I'm not sure Devin really has a cold. He's getting two more teeth, and it's making him slobber a lot. I think the slobbering makes him cough, there's pain, and now he has asthma. I think that he'll outgrow it, though.

She prescribed him albuterol as needed as well as pulmicort (an inhaled steroid) and singulair. I need to figure out how a steroid helps breathing and what singulair is. He'll be taking pulmicort twice a day and singular once a day. Poor Little Tyke.

Last time he was asthmatic, we took him to an acute care center. His heartrate was 177, and I thought that seemed pretty high. Today, I asked the doctor why I should give him a stimulant if his heartrate is already really high, and she told me that once he can breathe, his panic should go away, and his heartrate will decrease. It makes sense, but it's still a little scary to give a stimulant to a baby with a heartrate of 177!

That is a day in the life of Devin...

When he gets this way, his cheeks turn pink, and if I weren't worried about his breathing, I wouldn't be able to help thinking how asthma makes him too cute for words...