Asthma

Well, I promised I would post after our doctor visit on Friday, and as most of you have already heard what the doctor had to say about our dear Kadon, I'll simply do a quick recap on here. Kadon does in fact have a form of asthma, although at his young age, the doctor doesn't want to be too hasty and actually diagnosis him with asthma for a variety of reasons. Not the least of which is that puttting the big red 'A' in his chart at the ripe old age of 18 months will haunt him for the rest of his life, but also that there is a large chance that as he grows and matures, his lungs will also grow and mature, and hopefully he will grow out of his troubles. It appears as though Kadon's trigger for his asthma, which mostly manifests itself in coughing fits during the night, is the cold air that comes around this time of year. Kadon has been waking up several times a night for the past several weeks, usually following a fit of coughing, and has also been coughing whenever he is exposed to cold air during the day. While we have yet to decide how we are going to avoid exposing him to the cold air his poor lungs apparently don't handle very well, we have started doing breathing treatments with him twice a day, which is what you see in the photo. We hook the mask you can see up to a compressor, which turns albuterol, the liquid medicine he has been prescribed to help open up his airways, into a gas, which he then breathes deeply into his lungs. It then forces his entire respitory system to sort of 'unclog', which makes it so that he can breathe much easier. So far we haven't noticed him actually wheezing or rasping at all, and he doesn't seem to have any trouble running or playing like a normal toddler, so we feel blessed. Hopefully we will be able to keep this contained with a simple cough syrup before he goes to bed, and eventually a single breathing treatment before he goes to bed at night. Although he isn't a fan of the breathing treatments at this point (an 18 month old being forced to hold perfectly still with a mask over his face for 8 minutes isn't a pretty picture) the doctor assures us that with time he will grow used to the procedure and stop fighting it. We have noticed an improvement in his attitude even in the short time that we have been doing it, and we have noticed a DRASTIC improvement in his sleeping schedule, so for now we will definetely stay the course. More than likely, we will continue to do the breathing treatments once a day through the winter for the next several years in order to keep him comfortable through the cold months. The doctor is hoping that by the time he is 4 or 5 he will outgrow this unfortunate disease!