After almost two years of on and off breathing troubles, Jamey’s doctor is finally calling this phenomenon “asthma.” We’ve had a rough week together….Sunday night he started having really labored breathing. We were up giving breathing treatments and hearing him cough most of the night. We took him to the doctor the next morning, and she gave him a couple of different treatments in the office while listening to his lungs between them. She sent us home with orders to administer SIX treatments a day. We were reminded that the albuterol we have had to give him in the past only dilates his bronchioles but does nothing to reduce the inflammation that is causing his problems. So we are now also giving a steroid treatment to help reduce the inflammation.

The poor little guy gets up in the morning putting on his mask and trying to turn on his machine. He is getting better…but we are looking forward to better breathing in (hopefully) a few days so that we can wean him off the meds. They are making him crazy! I knew albuterol could cause him to be hyper (which it does), but it also makes him get MUCH more upset that usual about little things…and it is making him rather aggressive. Not like Jamey at all…. This afternoon he got desperately upset about the route I chose to take him on a bike ride. I had to stop and sit down on the side walk next to him while he was sitting on his bike screaming for about 10-15 minutes, talking quietly to him to get him to calm down. Thankfully, Ginna was patient with him today!

I’ll have to post some photos…he gave his doll a treatment yesterday!!! He was sure to make sure the mask stayed over the doll’s nose.