Asthma again

Hi Honey,

Yesterday I noticed that your brother was coughing intermittently after he got home from school. I was a little concern that he might have caught a cold. I also saw his classmates almost all have a runny nose, too.

So of course, I gave him his routine asthma treatment: nasal spray and 3 puffs of Albuterol. He was fine until around 3:15 a.m. He started coughing on and off, for about an hour. I knew it's his asthma again. I gave him everything I could do to soothe his cough: 3 puffs of Albuterol, water, Chinese herbal cough syrup, and even open the kitchen door to the backyard for some cool (and very rainy) air. Nothing really worked, and of course, none of us slept well last night.

Coincidentally, today was the scheduled follow-up telephone appointment with the pediatrician. What great timing. I told him what happened last night, and told him that your brother was doing a lot better since 2 weeks ago, up until last night. Pediatrician prescribed another inhaler for your brother, Flovent (which is a steroid). He said to use that twice a day for two weeks. Pump up the Albuterol to every 4 hrs again for 1-2 days, continue with Claritin and nasal spray. He said he's fairly sure your brother has asthma. It seems like his asthma is not hyperactivity-induced, as he doesn't really cough too much when he was running around. It might be inflammatory-induced. It's very likely that Aidan did catch a cold, and that triggered the asthma again. Pediatrician said the Flovent, though is steroid, is actually a lower dosage even using it everyday during the flu season than the rigorous 5-day treatment needed in case his asthma gets worse. He also referred us to see an asthma specialist, to give us more information. I hate to see that your brother dependent on all these inhalers for the rest of his life. Pediatrician said that it could be a lot worse than asthma. I knew he was right, coz I immediately thought of you. What your brother has to go through is nothing compared to what you have gone through. I just have to continue keeping an eye on him, and be pro-active with his asthma treatment.

Let's hope your brother's asthma will get better, and he will outgrow that when he gets older.

On a happier note, we signed all the papers for the new house, paid the down payment, and will VERY soon become homeowners! We're expecting to get the keys by the end of the week. Then we can take your brother down to the new house, on our way down to visit you.

I hope your home is not flooded. We've been having a big rainstorm and it's not pretty. Luckily, we chose your home to be slightly uphill, and hopefully you won't get too wet.


Miss you,
Mommy