Bringing Down the Wall

the continuing saga of Satchel's respiratory ills...

After recieving a precription for Zyrtec, Zithromax, and Nasonex and being told to continue with the Singulair by Dr. M, the pulmonary specialist, I was pretty disheartened as you may remember.

I called Dr. Vaccine, the allergist, and set up an appointment for the next week. "It's not Pertussis," I dejectedly told him, "Or asthma," I added a bit more perkily.

I really didn't want to give Satchel all of the medication he had been prescribed, but I was scared to blatantly disobey "Doctor's orders." (Ok "scared" might be an overstatement!) I called a few friends--a CNM, a doctor's wife--looked online, and consulted with my husband and my brother, who is a doctor. No one really agreed, but there did seem to be a general theme of "don't give him the antibiotics." I also had a lot of people suggest I call a Chiropractor or try and find a Naturopath.

I entered into another email debate with my pediatrician and tried desperately to get him to say Satchel didn't need the medications, but he didn't. After much back and forth I finally wrote him an email explaining that I would do the 4 day Zithromax, but nothing else until after we saw the allergist.

He said okay and then immediately flagged my chart with an "Asshole" sticker, I'm sure.

After Satchel finished the Zithromax a funny thing happened. He stopped coughing and puking and really seemed fine. I was thrilled and confused.

Was it Pertussis (a.k.a. "The Hundred Day Cough") afterall?

Did it have something to do with the weather cooling off?

What.the.fuck?

By the time our appointment with the allergist rolled around, I wondered if we really needed to go. We did indeed go and found out several things:

1. Dr. Vaccine's office is full of extremely nice people who don't make you wait at all.
2. Satchel is the only three-year-old they have ever seen who didn't completely lose it while being poked 20+ times with a stick.
3. Satchel had an extremely mild reaction to mold and dust.
4. Dr. Vaccine suggested covering our mattress and pillows with a special cover and then prescribed Nasonex and Zyrtec. (To his credit he did say the Singulair seemed unnecessary at this point.)

We haven't got the covers yet and we haven't given him the medicine yet either. And he's still fine. (Knock on cyberwood.)

I am really glad that my complete lack of faith in our medical system has coincided with Satchel's return to good health.