Now Labeled Asthmatic

I haven't yet broached the subject on the blog about our first hospital visit and part of that is because I have so many questions that are still left unanswered. In the meantime there is one thing that our hospital stint did get us...a new label.

Up until this point most of Monk's allergic reactions, severe and mild, presented as hives and vomiting.  Because of this, that little section on his allergy action plan continued to happily read: "Asthma: No."

This last reaction changed everything. For the first time he presented with breathing problems, and I learned a slew of new vocabulary words such as retractions and pulse ox and new mamma skills such as measuring breaths per minute. So almost a year after our first allergic reaction, we have another new label, asthmatic.

Warning Signs
Looking back over this past winter it should have been clear that we would eventually come to this point. Monk suffered through three rounds of RSV, and each time had to go on prescription asthma medication to help him breath. But these times were just temporary and only to get through the illness, so no real reason for a label, right?

Then there was another previous reaction where his legs got marbled and purplish. This could have been signalling a lack of oxygen in his blood stream, but I had no clue! I would like to note that we did call the doctor on call who didn't think much of it then so neither did we.

Hindsight is just that. I can harp on things that happened in the past, but I can learn from them.

Moving Forward
With a new label comes new meds. It makes me laugh sometimes at how easily my child takes medication. It is our daily routine now so it is something that he has gotten used to.  I do catch him carrying around his Aero Chamber on occasion, putting it up to his mouth and making noises like it is his microphone. 

I look at this new label as one more mystery solved, one more problem identified for which we have a solution.  The more we know and the more we experience, the better equipped we are for whatever is next down the line. I still hold out hope that maybe this label will go away if and when we cross out some of his food allergies, but as of now our updated allergy action plan reads, "Asthma: Yes (higher risk for a severe reaction.)"

Don't know what an allergy action plan is or what it looks like?  Check one out here.