Met Dr. Shaw today, he was the allergist that our pediatrician recommended for Austin to see. Wonderful doctor. We spent over two hours there..i will try to make this brief, but after all we were there over 2 hours..He went through the history and medicine use with me, his symptoms and his attitude (you know all the good stuff)..he wanted to order a CT of his sinuses to see what/if we can find anything..Have you ever had a CT?? OMG..I had to put Austin in a chair, they put two Styrofoam wedges next to his head to keep it straight in this contraption and he had to sit there and NOT MOVE for 10 seconds while this things buzzed around his head..OMG !!! LOL..Well he wasn't happy to begin with since we started this test at 11:30ish (appt started at 10:30) and nap time is normally 9ish..anyway, as the machine started up i started saying "wwwweeeeeeee"..he laughed and loved it, but couldn't quite sit still enough..so we had to do it one more time..wedges in, hands held, machine ready..start.."wweeee" as he says this HE TURNS TO LOOK AT THE NURSE AND LAUGH AND SMILE !!!! Little flirt !! The wedges fall out and we have to stop the machine..so we try a third time..we finally get it..Of course if he wasn't his Daddy's son, we would have had it one the second time...anyway, we head back to the room, I set him down so he can dig a "treasure" out of the treasure chest for being a good boy, not interested..what is he interested? The door ! He bolts..they had the side door open and bolts out with me and the technician in hot pursuit..of course they all laugh and ask if he keeps me on my toes..uh, ya !!
Dr. Shaw comes back in to review the CT..he does have a sinus infection..you can plainly see it on the scan..he also pointed out his adenoids and how to him they look swollen, but he will leave the diagnosis up to Dr. Albright (the ENT)..He has started him a whole new course of antibiotics, a breathing treatment with a machine, steroids, and more tests to be done..
I asked him if whether the adenoids were causing the sinus infection or vice versa, his response.."this is where it becomes fun..and I use that term loosely" Basically, they don't know if the sinus infection is causing the swollen adenoids or if he has a bacterial infection in the adenoids that is causing the sinus infection..he told me it's the chicken/egg syndrome..
Next step..allergy test and blood work..he wants us back next week to run a full panel of allergy tests..he does NOT think he has allergies, but his words were "this kid has been sick for so long, let's check everything"..YAY !! And blood work..he wants to run a full immune system panel..I asked him if he was concerned all the antibiotics had damaged the immune system..he said not really...short term effect, they don't work as well..long term effect we should be fine..but since he's not getting better there could be an underlying immune system issue..
It could be an immature system ...fancy term for it hasn't completely developed yet and will over time..in 6 months or a year he could be much better, and this is something we have to get through..
Immune system issue..there could be a problem with the immune system that we will have to address, and this is causing him to be unable to get better or fight any infection
Nothing wrong..there could be nothing wrong with the immune system and this all sinus/adenoid related..fix that and it's all gone..
So I am headed to Texas Children's Hospital tomorrow for blood work..we could have it done locally, but he suggests (and I completely agree) that the lab at Texas Children's ONLY deals with kids..so they are good..I would hate for him to get some apathetic tech at the lab here and scare the crap outta him or hurt him (which would scare him) and make him afraid of nurses and such down the line...
We are still scheduled to see the ENT on Thursday and hopefully all the blood work will be back by then..we are to go back to the allergist in two weeks for a follow up..he is hoping the allergy results will be back by then, the ENT will have made his diagnosis and the blood work will be back..he seems confident we can fix this..whatever it is...I am just happy we are moving towards something !!! No more, spinning in circles and guessing...My opinion..I dont' think removing the adenoids are the whole answer..the infection has to be coming from somewhere, or not leaving bcuz of....but I am not a doctor, just the mom who is tired of watching her little boy suffer..I told a dear friend yesterday, it was kinda sad that I wanted to run and grab the video camera to catch him laughing..those moments are few and far between and I wanted it on film**...poor little man..oh well !!! WE ARE MOVING TOWARDS SOMETHING !!!!
Please keep praying, I firmly believe that he can still use all the help he can get..medical and spiritual..
**Let me rephrase that..those moments of him laughing are not that few and far between, he is a happy baby..or he tries to be..but the last three weeks he has changed..he is just mad at the world..he still laughs and runs and plays, but it's not as long or as much...I can just imagine the smile if he was feeling good...the ONE thing that will ALWAYS make him laugh...his sister !!!! He loves her, he calls for her, he runs to her....she is, she is his world right now and he couldn't have a better example**
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