We finally have some answers on Kristopher and his recurring illnesses. First of all. He had to be tortured last week with blood work. Then I got to be tortured more by waiting a week for results. The doctor called this morning to say that everything is now within normal range and he actually appears to be a healthy child.
Monday we had a Methacholine Challenge done which determined he does have some form as asthma. The results are not back to the doctor to confirm that 100%, but the guy who did the test said based on everything he was seeing, and what Kristopher was telling him while the test was going on, it's definitely some form. If he had to guess, he'd say it's the cough variant that we've been tossing around since the spring. So I guess that will take a week till the doctor calls me back and tells me what we are going to do about that. Basically it means that it's only induced and bothered when he has a cold. Keep him healthier, and we can avoid some of this drama. I need some ideas on how to keep his immune system up. We do gummy vitamins so maybe that helps some, but his white cells were on the very bottom of the normal scale. I hope it's because he's still getting over that cold, but either way. Going to push harder to do things to boost it more so he can fight these colds off better before it ends up full blown lung infested issues.
The tech also told me that due to truck traffic, warehouses, etc in the area, the asthma diagnosis is majorly on the rise in my area. That could be why we didn't have these issues when he was little. We moved a year and half ago, and first place had some mold issues. That could trigger it as well. We did not test for it, but I'm pretty sure he has a mold allergy. He was very sick at that house. It is a lot better this year, but still not what I'm use to. In the past, a cold was a day of watery eyes, a day of snotting, then magically gone. While I sat back and suffered with the same thing myself, for a few weeks. I want to get him back to that point.
So, wait another week and we will find out for sure that the tech is right. It was an interesting test. And the tech was awesome with explaining everything we were seeing, and made it easy for him to follow and cooperate. It makes up for the hospital's crappy lab team we had.
Makes you wonder how bad it would have been if you put him in a daycare with a bunch of germ incubators when he was younger!
ReplyDeleteI don't know much about preventing colds other than handwashing. We've used zicam around here for awhile... I don't think it helps me much, but my husband likes it. If you try it, don't get the kind that you put directly in the nose. There have been lawsuits against the company for people losing their sense of smell. Other than that, eat well and exercise I guess.