White as a Ghost

7 Weeks ago was the first time it happened. Ethan and Ryan were staying at my mom's overnight (this was before we moved in). My mother called me and said Ethan was having a hard time breathing and asked what she should do. The second time it happened was a week ago. We put Ethan to bed healthy at 9 p.m. and he woke up at 11 p.m. choking, trying to cough. His chest was sinking in, and he was turning white. We took him to the E.R. (never take your children to the E.R. in Tooele...it sucks). Anyway, they sent us away with an Albuterol inhaler and told us to call our pediatrician. I took Ethan in last Friday and I had to used the inhaler 3 times that week. Our Pediatrician said he has asthma and told us to keep doing what we've been doing. Well, Friday night, Saturday night, and Sunday night he did not sleep a wink. Coughing, gaging, wheezing, chest sinking in. Monday morning his face was as white as a ghost and his lips were blue. And he started throwing up. We took him to his Pediatrician again, and he said...."wow, he is really bad. His lungs sound terrible. He is in bad shape". He put him on a nebulizer and gave him a double dose of steroids to open his lungs. He sounded even worse after the treatment. The doctor sent us home with Prednisone (a steroid) and told me to give him a double dose when we got home and give him 4 puffs of the Albuterol inhaler every 4 hours. By last night he was pretty much feeling like Super Man with all the steroids. He was so active and running around and color his color had returned to his face. Although, when it was bed time, he wanted to stay up and play. We finally got to sleep at 11 p.m. (his normal bed time is 7:30 p.m.). He got up every 3.5 hours screaming because he couldn't breathe and I just gave him his inhaler and a snack and he'd go back to sleep. We went in for a follow up appointment today and the Doctor said he looked a ton better. He thought he'd have to send us to Primary's today (thank goodness that didn't happen). So now, my little 18 month old has asthma, and is on a controlled medicine everyday of his life (Flovent) 2 times a day. And his emergency Albuterol inhaler and emergency Prednisone. I went and bought me a bag specifically for my children's medicine. I have to carry around with me at all times: Epi-Pen, Claritin, Albuterol, face mask & spacer for the inhaler, and if we go somewhere in the morning or night I have to take the Flovent with me also.

Ben's family has a long history of asthma so we weren't surprised this happened, just disappointed. We were hoping we'd dodge the asthma thing. Ben's grandmother had asthma, Ben's dad has asthma, Ben's mom has seasonal asthma, a few of Ben's brother's have asthma, Ben has asthma, and Ben's uncle died at a young age from a hip complication from using steroids too much from having asthma.

I'm grateful to Ben for holding the priesthood so he could give Ethan a blessing. I'm grateful that Ethan is slowly improving and hopefully it won't be this bad again. I'm grateful for my mom for helping out, and for my father-in-law for talking to the family doctor for us. I'm also grateful I'm on my blessed period right now...I mean it's not like I'm tired and ornery enough right? (For those of you who don't know me very well, that last part is a joke. I'm not really grateful for my period).