To Singulair or Not To Singulair, That is the Question

Singulair is a tricky drug. Medicating your child is never an easy decision. Choosing a medication with suspected side-effects is an even harder decision. But when Logan was so sick in December and January we decided to try Singulair again.

As soon as he started to take it, you could see it was helping control his allergies. You could see the positive results. Look, we're helping him! Go us! Pollaks-1, Allergies-0. Woo-hoo!

Then the nightmares start again. Slowly. One nightmare every two weeks, one nightmare every week, 2 nightmares a week, the frequency rises. Logan starts to feel afraid to go to sleep, afraid he'll have a bad dream.

Unacceptable! We take him off Singulair again, right before Spring. No more nightmares, but the allergy control is removed. Spring arrives with terrible environmental allergies. He coughs, he sneezes, he wears visible shiners red and black. He wakes up coughing and in a trance depending on the morning and can't stop coughing without a dose of Zyrtec. We turn once again to an allergy medication.

We're desperate. We want to "fix" him. We want to help him feel better, help him live life to his full potential. We try and try and never know if we're getting it right. It's not easy, but we know it could be worse. We know he's OK, not so sick we can't keep him at home. He's not in the hospital. He goes to school (although he has missed 14 days if I'm counting correctly), he plays with friends, he gets to Karate (most of the time) and he's smart, funny, creative, and really good-looking (I may be biased).

I look forward to summer, putting the days of pollen behind us and possibly moving to the desert someday. Colorado Springs looks just lovely :)

Learned Helplessness

January has been tough around here. Really tough. We rang in the New Year with bronchitis and an ear infection. Two weeks later we still had wheezing and a suspected sinus infection. Over three weeks later and we are trying to eliminate terrible nose congestion. After my hands felt the rattling in his chest after an emotional outburst this morning, we will visit the pediatrician on Friday to rule out walking pneumonia as advised by the pulmonogist's nurse.

The most frustrating and worrisome part of having such a severely allergic son is feeling helpless. I hate giving him meds. I hate running him to doctors. I hate how sick he's been and how much school and karate he's missed. I hate how thin he looks again. I don't know how to "fix" him.

I wish I knew what was right. I feel so ambivalent about giving him medicine. All the doctors tell me not to stop the medicine. That's a big mistake. Don't stop if he "seems" better. But how do I know the medicine won't hurt him? How do I know the consequences of giving him medicine won't appear years from now? I don't. I have to trust his doctors because I am not a doctor. It's like trusting your mechanic when you bring in your car, but there's so much more to lose when they're fixing your son.

I try to remember I feel like this every winter. That he's sick every winter and we feel like we're hibernating and then things get better in the Spring. Except for the pollen. Damn pollen.

Happy New Year!

We got through Christmas! We didn't have to cancel plans! In fact, everyone in the house was sick prior to Christmas except for Logan. He's been sick on and off throughout November and December, but managed to keep it together through Christmas.

Of course, he's sick now. I will cancel plans we tentatively made for today (he had a low grade fever last night), but that's not unusual for us. I may have to cancel plans for tomorrow as well, but I do try to remain optimistic. At least I'm trying to this winter.

He did almost throw-up at a friend's birthday party as he choked on his post-nasal drip, and we passed on the mucus producing ice-cream cake in favor a cupcake I packed just in case, but we managed. We adjust. We work with what we've got.

I wish you all a happy and allergy free New Year!

October sucks!

I have never looked forward to winter before, but I am this year. Our son, Logan, has had the worst seasonal allergies ever. He ended up with a sinus infection and respiratory issues all at the same time. After 5 days of Orapred, he seems better but a cough still lingers and rouses my suspicion. I was handed a script for antibiotic if Logan was not "better". But what defines better? Can he still have a cough? He still looks tired, but he does feel better than he did. He's never going to feel great, but I worry that the sinus infection is still there, slowly building it's strength.

So we'll visit the ENT next week and find out once and for all if his sinuses are okay again. But I have never looked forward to bare trees more than I have this year. I really is time to move to the desert.

Here's the Pinata!

A video documenting our Logan-safe piñata experience

Singulair

We gave in. We got him singulair. We decided we didn't want our son to take it, but after he had what I term an "allergy fever" on Saturday night we gave in. When he gets an allergy fever, his ears turn red, his gets a fever, and then he throws up. This happened three times in May when spring arrived in all it's glory. We just need to get through the autumnal seasonal change, and then maybe we can stop taking it by November/December.

It's such a hard decision, putting your kids on medications. I don't want to give him anything, and I give him far less than our doctors advise, but it's just too hard to watch him suffer so much.

So we'll try singulair, and hope he's ok with it. However, I'm still undecided on this year's flu shot.

Stupid Pumpkin Farm

My son went to a pumpkin farm for a field trip this past Thursday. Seemed like an okay thing to do, what could happen? That night he couldn't stop coughing. He managed to sleep though the night and woke up coughing his head off. I gave him his inhaler, some nose drops and he seemed to clear up quite a bit so I sent him to school. The school class me around 11:30 AM and tells me he's having trouble breathing. "Okay, give him his inhaler and I'll be right there." I race over and he's still coughing but breathing better. Good...The nurse thinks he should see our doctor. Okay, call the doctor, tell them what's going on, they say, "Come in right away!" Okay, go to the doctor. Finally see the doctor and the verdict? POST-NASAL DRIP. That's right, not a cold, not the flu, not asthma. Just severe allergies and post-nasal drip. After using preventative inhalers last night and nose drops he didn't cough at all this morning. NOT ONE COUGH!

Stupid Pumpkin Farm. Now what do I do? Next year I say, "Sorry son, can't pick a pumpkin. You can't handle it?" I don't want to do that! I though we'd go apple picking this weekend. We are soooo not going apple picking. We'll just have to avoid nature until the seasonal change ends. What else is new?