Roid Rage

When Emma was hospitalized last November with RSV, her pediatrician warned me she might develop asthma. I was actually already aware of this. Emma was first diagnosed with bronchiolitis in Vietnam. While I anxiously waited for her visa holed up in an apartment 24 hours a day, getting food through room service, I had plenty of time to research bronchiolitis on the Internet.There is a high incidence of asthma in children who have had RSV. So Dr. Chamber's news wasn't new to me.

But we made it through December and January without any breathing issues (her left ear was another matter-- 5 infections in 2 months) and then came February. Right before Jenna's birthday, the 27th, Emma got a cold that produced a cough and wheezing. Dr. Chambers had me get a nebulizer and said he was sure we would need it again but said it still might not be asthma. That her lungs were conditioned to the RSV and she could grow out of it in a year or two.

Last Thursday she came down with another cold and woke up Friday morning wheezing. She wasn't really bad but by Monday morning it sounded worse-- back to the doctor. Dr. Chambers said her lungs sounded really bad, worse than all winter and told me to put steroids in her nebulizer twice a day.

When Emma has been hospitalized she was given steroids via IV. When she finally came off the ventilator and I could hold her at times she seemed very angry -- at 4 months! Of course, I might be angry too if I had a tube down my throat, tubes in two arms and one foot and I had to lay in a bed for 6 days and my mom wouldn't (in reality couldn't) hold me. Her nurse practitioner in ICU told me it was the steroids. He told me when they gave steroids to the most docile kids with asthma they would sometimes go into screaming rages and run up and down the hall.

Monday night I gave Emma her first steroid breathing treatment and part way through she began getting SO mad! She doesn't really like the breathing treatments and often tries to move away from the mask (I don't strap it on, just hold it up to her face) but this time she was screaming and arching her back and tensing her entire body. And that night she didn't sleep well.

(My laptop with all of my photo software is currently being attended to by the Geek Squad because my mother board crashed. So mentally insert photo of Emma with a mask to her face and her arching her back and screaming. Pretty picture.)

Yesterday morning and night, repeats of Monday night. I thought maybe I was imaging things, surely Roid Rage only comes with steroid injections, but inhaling steroids seems to be making my daughter the Incredible Hulk.

On a positive note, she seems to be much better this morning so I have held off another steroid round.

Emma still does not have a diagnosis of asthma but Dr. Chambers said the fact that she is having to use steroids in the middle of May is not a good sign and expect for her new pediatrician to have to use them next fall. Wow! I can't wait!