Asthma? Really?

Kendall has been struggling since school started with her asthma.  She's been having 2-3 attacks a week and I can't figure out what has been causing them.  Her doctor recognized our car when we pull into the parking lot!  That means we've been there a little too often if you ask me.  He's put her on meds and nothing seemed to be working so today we went to a Specialist.   We were originally sent to Children's Mercy here in Kansas City but they couldn't get us in until February and when I said that wasn't ok they were willing to "squeeze" her in in January.  Still that wasn't ok with me as we've had this problem since August.  I found a specialist up here in the northland and they were able to see her within 10 days.  The 10 days were because she had to be off of Zertec that long for them to test her and see if she was allergic to anything.

 

When the doctor came in he was semi pushy leaning towards she didn't have asthma but that it was something else completely.  I told him if he could just tell me what it was I'd be happy just to get rid of this problem.  He took lots of notes and then said he'd test her, but was pretty sure the tests would show it wasn't asthma. 

 

First a breathing test.

 

A Breathing Treatment

 

A scratch test

 

and finally another Breathing test.

 

At the time of her appointment she wasn't struggling, and her first breathing test was "normal", however after the treatment her second breathing test showed "significant" improvement, indicative of asthma. :(

 

Then the results of the scratch test,  This would hopefully show us what maybe triggering her attacks.

 

Yep.  He was quite surprised when he came in after just 7 min. (the test is 15 minutes long)  He back was already reacting to multiple allergens.

 

This is what it looked like after 15 minutes.

 

The red spot on the bottom right is a positive and the one above it a negative that everyone will react to and not react to.  The others she reacted to?  Weeds, Trees, and Mold.  What how do I keep her away from those?  They are everywhere out here.

So he switched up some of her meds that she was already on. and kept her on others.  One he kept her on, Zertec, he had given me a hard time when he first questioned me about why she had been on it. I didn't completely know myself except that her doctor had said to try it and hopefully it would help.  After these tests even the Specialist said Yes. Don't take her off of that.

Now we wait a month... and see what happens...  Hopefully these attacks will stop and her lungs will have a chance to recover.