Saturday, September 12, 2009

The Little Asthmatic






Anyone who knows Hazen knows that the kid gets winded. Really, really, really easily. As in, much faster than any 2 year old, and possibly any person in their mid 80's ever should. We knew that Hazen would probably have some respiratory issues pop up as a result of his prematurity at birth, but when the popped up, they really came out of the blue! It started with him getting winded if he would run around outside too much. Then, if he was running around crazy in the house for a long time, he would start to cough. Finally, about a week or two ago, we could hardly make the poor kid laugh or he would be on the floor in a fit of coughs. Luckily, his 2 year well child visit was a few days later. I took him to his amazing Pediatrician, Dr. Lauret, and it was very quickly determined that our little buddy has a pretty decent case of Childhood Asthma. We already have a Nebulizer to give him breathing treatments when his breathing is giving him problems, but the doctor decided to go from PRN (as needed) treatments to twice a day.

While this diagnosis made me a little sad for my baby who can't run and play quite as much as other kids can, it made me so grateful for modern medicine, and its ability to help our little boy so easily! It's incredible seeing how Hazen associates the Nebulizer with feeling better. How many 2 year olds do you know that will sit on your lap and hold the medication in their mouths for 15 minutes twice a day? When we tell him it's time for medicine, he runs right to the couch and clamours to get into our laps. What a blessing for Hazen to understand that we're just trying to make him feel better!

We also had a close call with the Pharmacy. When we got the prescription for his Nebulizer, we got one for Albeuterol, which is for Acute Asthma, and Pulmacort, which is a steroid that would treat the chronic asthma. After paying a ridiculous amount of money for the prescription, I was on my way. I got in the car, and started fiddling around with the Pulmacort- to see how many days my $98 dollars would last. (The answer was that I would have to refill it 2x/month. Ouch.) I realized that I couldn't figure out how to open the dang medicine, so I drove around to the Drive Through Pharmacy. While the Pharmacist was trying to figure out how to open the medication himself, I decided to look at the insert for the med. I had taken a test in Pharmacology about medications for Asthma the day before, so I felt pretty happy that I was about to make sense of a lot of the technical mumbo-jumbo on the insert. As the pharmacist was taking his fine sweet time, I felt the need to flip the insert over and keep on reading. As if the words were in bold type, size 30 font (they weren't), I saw that the particular medication was contraindicated in children under 6 years old. I immediately asked the Pharmacist, who told me that sometimes Pediatricians prescribe things slightly outside of the recommended doses for the medication. Ordinarily, I would have taken his advice and been on my way, but this time I felt the need to do some more research. I kept on reading until I came across another portion in the insert that instructed its users that the medication was absolutely not to be taken more than every other day. We were prescribed to give Hazen this medicine twice a day- 4 times the recommended amount. I informed the Pharmacist that there was something that was wrong, and with a look of concern in his eyes, he told me he needed to look at the Prescription another time. Long story short, the prescription that was written wasn't completely clear, but the Pharmacy opted not to call to clarify. He looked at me earnestly and told me that he didn't know HOW I caught it, but he was so so glad that I did. This medication had the potential to do Hazen great harm.

I got into my car and tears ran down my face as I drove home, audibly thanking my Heavenly Father for helping me catch the mistake. I thanked him for letting me have the test when I did, because if this mistake had happened even one week earlier (when Hazen's Dr appointment was actually supposed to be), I simply didn't know enough about the medication to catch it. I thanked him for a mind that could retain information, and, for out of all the times that I miss promptings and don't catch on to the things that He wants me to, letting this time be one that I did.

11 comments:

Amanda Fetters said...

What a sweet reminder of a loving Heavenly Father's care. So glad you caught that!

James and Lauren said...

Kaden is on albuterol, and we have pulmacort, but only use it when his asthma is really bad. Its kind of our emergency medication. :) Asthma kinda sucks, but i am with you. Its nice to have modern medication sometimes. It was so hard when we didnt know what was wrong and just had to watch him suffer all the time. Glad you caught it! And welcome to the club. ;) When he gets a little older look into an inhaler with a spacer for when you are out and about or the middle of the might when you don't want to be up for 15 minutes... I think Kaden was 4 when we got his.

Kirsten Krason said...

That was an awesome story. I'm glad you checked it out so carefully and that you were "helped" in figuring out what was wrong. That's a good lesson for new parents and all people..

Jessica said...

Great/scary story. You are so the perfect mom for that kid. He's lucky he got you!

April said...

Keep up the great mothering. That is how it is done. Just one sweet voice at a time. Nice catch!

Ashley Clark said...

Not to mention an affirmation that being a nurse is the BEST! Because you know so much more about your body, medication, nutrition--thus enabling you to be the best mom possible. Cool experience.

Liz said...

So glad that you caught that - what a tender mercy that you'd had the test the day before, that you couldn't open the medicine . . . that everything lined up the way that it did. Hope the medicine continues to help Hazen - what a sweetie.

Hazen5 said...

Great Catch Anne!

Okay, Hal looks HUGE sitting on your lap.

heidiram said...

Hello . . . do you have any pictures? Updates???? Come on.

Adam and Debbie said...

My husband Adam has allergy related asthma. He had a few scary trips to the ER as a kid, but now he rarely used his inhaler. Glad he's doing ok and hopefully it goes away as he gets older.

Diana said...

Anne, you are amazing! I love that not only did you have the knowledge you needed at the moment you needed it, but that you acknowledged where it came from. You are my hero in so many different ways. ;)