Update on Pediatrician Rant...

[purr]

Some of you may remember me complaining about my 4 month old's pediatrician and their lax attitude towards his 2 month ordeal with bronchiolitis..

We took him to a Pediatric Pulmonologist at Childrens on the 23rd. They were wonderful!!! They took x-rays of his chest to check for problems, and they did a complete thorough exam. We were seen by a nurse practitioner and the doctor.

Whats going on with him isnt bronchiolitis, its rather a structural problem that he will eventually (hopefully) outgrow. He said that he may be predisposed to asthma but it is too soon to tell. Whats happening is his tubes are closing together - rather flattening out, causing his lungs to produce more mucus and that is what is making him cough so much and same with the wheeze - they're flat and make him wheeze.

What made them rule out asthma, or bronchiolitis is that when he sleeps, the wheeze goes away.

So hes on Pulmicort and Atrovent daily via a nebulizer. He hates it, and it actually makes him cough worse. I called the NP today to let him know about it, and he told me that its normal for him to cough more - its breaking the stuff up and allowing it to come up.

I feel better knowing its nothing serious :) I just hope it doesnt turn into asthma. I had a friend in high school with it and she really struggled with it. I dont want to see him go through that.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

1. Yay!

I'm glad you finally have some answers!

[purr]

2. Me too!!!

Its such a relief!

[KitchenWitch]

3. Sorry to hear about his condition

but glad you got to see a doctor that was willing to investigate further. I hate the gatekeeping that primary care doctors are doing to jump through the hoops of the damn insurance companies.

A note to all accountants everywhere, do not practice medicine, and doctors will not practice accountancy!

:grr:

[purr]

5. That really pisses me off..

His doc kept telling me to ride it out.. blah blah blah.. Finally I get some answers about what is going on with him. I simply called them up and told them I'm taking him to a specialist and the receptionist told me that the doc may want to see him before I take him.. I'm like I was there already how many times, she wont do squat and to just give me the referral. She agreed but didnt sound none too happy about it.

Hes my kid... If they wont do something about it, then damnit, I'm going to.

[Maestro]

4. Many more kids and adults even are developing asthma

so don't be surprised if your 4 month old does. My daughter was diagnosed with asthma at a year and a half and has been Albuterol and Xopanex (sp?) ever since. I have even developed asthma as an adult. My wife has had asthma since she was a kid as well. If fact, her mom had to give her back massages as a baby to break loose the mucus. I guess more people are coming down with asthma because the quality of our air is getting so poor. I hope your little completely recovers or at least gets used to those treatments. My daughter still hates them and she is almost six now.

[purr]

6. The air quality is horrible around here..

He doesnt respond to the albuterol treatments they were giving him at the doctors. He really doesnt even respond to the pulmicort, but they told me it can take up to 2 weeks for improvement to be seen. I sure hope so.. its been a week and hes still miserable.

How did they diagnose her with asthma? Anything special you have to do for her other than the breating treatments?

[Maestro]

7. They diagnosed basically by ruling out everything else...

cold, no, allergies, no, serious illness, no, etc...So our pediatrician said to try the treatments. I can't remember how long it took her to react to the treatments but in retrospect, it seemed immediate. We do nothing else except give her Singulair from time to time when we can get some samples from the same pediatrician. We know his secretary who gives all these meds that we need free. She takes the ungodly large amounts of samples given to the pediatrician by the pharma industry. It really is pathetic how much they give away. If they didn't give away so much as samples, then perhaps they wouldn't have to charge us so much.

[purr]

8. Did she have a constant wheeze?

My doc loves to give out tons of samples. He gave my mom a huge box of nexium one day. I mean it was like a 12x16" box full of them. I honestly wonder if they get a kick from passing them out like candy. On the other hand, its a nice alternative to spending BIG bucks there and at the pharmacy. The one med I'm on - Vancomycin costs $1600 w/o insurance. Luckily, I have decent drug coverage and only have to pay $100 but still. Thats insane - $1600.

Even with asthma, is she living a normal kid life? I'm worried from what I seen my friend go through - she couldnt even walk through the halls in HS without getting an attack daily. She was constantly using her inhaler.

[Maestro]

9. She didn't have really loud wheeze, but what we did notice,

especially when she slept, was that her breathing seemed labored, shallow and fast. She is a completely normal kid. Her asthma does not stop her at all. Asthma is chronic, but is easily controlled for the most part. Heck she might grow out of it. Who knows?