November 20, 2005
So much has happened since I last updated this thing that, ironically, there is now too much stuff for me to be able to deal with in one entry, so I keep putting it off for later, and then more stuff accumulates, and so on, and so forth, and then it's four months later and I'm like "what, I didn't tell you that a Vietnamese hooker moved in with us for the winter holiday season?" (Apologies to David Sedaris.)
First and foremost: Zeke's fine. We did go to have that chest X-ray that I was freaking out about in the last entry, and the results were not perfect, but they did not reveal any of my worst-case scenarios, either. I am not even going to tell you what those scenarios were, for fear of jinxing something. It's a mom thing; don't question it.
I went back and forth about whether to even discuss Zeke's diagnosis here on the journal. On the one hand, I sort of want to write about his doctor's visits and how they went and how we're all doing, but on the other hand, I really, really, REALLY don't want people to go batshit and start sending me little e-hugs and expressions of sympathy and whatever. Even more than that, I don't want, and will not tolerate, anyone thinking that Zeke is some kind of invalid, because he's not. But having said that up front, I'll go ahead and tell you what happened at the doctor's office.
Basically, the X-ray came back positive for what we were originally told was "Reactive Airway Disorder" (that's so rad). I naturally did some Googling after we were informed this over the phone, the night before his actual doctor's appointment, and found a lot of really confusing, vague information. The doctor explained the next day that the vagueness is more or less because "RAD" is a catch-all term that physicians tend to apply to kids who have asthma-like symptoms but aren't yet officially diagnosed with asthma. Like Zeke.
We saw Zeke's regular doctor about a week afterwards, and she said that to her, his X-ray basically looked like asthma. She also said that based on his clinical symptoms it also seemed like a very mild case to her. He doesn't wheeze, he doesn't have severe coughing fits, he doesn't get overly winded that we've noticed. It's just that he had this cough that he couldn't seem to shake, and it had been going on for nearly a month and a half. The doctor said that it was a manifestation of the problem in his airways. She put him on oral steroids and antibiotics (for possible sinus infection) for five days and told us that would probably clear up the cough. Today was day 5, and Zeke hasn't coughed for at least 12 hours that I've noticed, so we may be in the clear.
The doctor also told us that he doesn't need to stay on any medication permanently, and that we don't even really need to give him any preventive medication when he gets a cold. Only if he gets an unshakeable cough like he had this time. And she also said he'll most likely grow out of this.
I can deal with all of this, no problem, and so can Zeke. What worries me is some other person hearing the word "asthma" and thinking that Zeke can't run, jump, or play just as much as any other child can, and somehow imparting that attitude to Zeke as well. We've kept his diagnosis pretty much on the down-low, only telling a few trusted family members. My feeling is that the world at large doesn't need to know, because they have no reason to know. It doesn't affect Zeke's daily life at all. We're not currently medicating him, he's not coughing anymore, and I'm not going to brand him across his forehead with a big sign reading "ASTHMA."
I'm mostly just relieved that this time, he got sick and we took him to the doctor, and they wanted an X-ray, and it turned out to be something really minor and really treatable, and not a 3-week-long stay in the hospital with ventilators and chest tubes and so forth. Something like that can really scar you as a parent.
Okay, with interruptions, this entry has already taken me over an hour to write, so I should wrap up. More soon to come about how moving in has gone, and our washing machine saga, and the new neighbors, and so forth.
Posted at November 20, 2005 6:46 PM