On October 6, 2017, we went to Adia's routine physical. While there, we mentioned that Adia sometimes struggles with breathing. However, this was only because Adia said she was struggling to breathe, especially after PE and other physical activities. Her difficulty breathing was not noticeable as she is not one that wheezes, coughs, etc. She may breathe a bit harder, but I assumed that was normal after activity. However, Adia has been one to go croupy pretty quickly with her cough when she has been sick. Her doctor decided to have her do a pulmonary test, just to make sure things were ok. She was sent to another office for the test, which we had never done before. She had to breathe out as hard as she could into a machine that would measure her air flow. I should have known that we were in trouble when the nurse told her to blow harder. After the initial test, they gave her a couple of puffs of an inhaler and then repeated the test, 15-30 minutes later. Her numbers before the inhaler were at 56% and 33%. After the inhaler, the numbers changed to 62% and 47%. The numbers should be at least 80%. So...she was diagnosed with moderate to severe asthma. Our doctor then said we should go to an allergy doctor to help get the asthma under control and to do allergy testing to see if we could determine what was causing the asthma to occur.
On October 11, we went to see the allergist. Adia had a shorter breathing test, and her numbers were still low. We walked out of there with prescriptions for oral steroids, a steroid inhaler to be used every day, nose spray and a rescue inhaler. The doctor said her case is a bit more concerning as it will be more difficult to monitor progress as she isn't having the typical physical symptoms of asthma. She also wanted to keep a close watch on Adia to make sure we were quickly making progress. They will be relying on how Adia is feeling and the numbers from her breathing tests to determine how she is progressing.
That day we also had her allergy testing done. Because her air flow levels were so low, the doctor was concerned about doing the skin testing as she didn't want to create too much of an allergic reaction since Adia's body was already working so hard. Our options were to come back to do the skin testing after a couple of weeks or to do the blood draw that day. We chose to do the blood draw....to get it over with and because Adia didn't want to do the skin testing.
Finally, the test results came back. We found out that Adia is really low in her levels of Vitamin D. So another prescription was added of Vitamin D to help bring up her levels. She tested positive for being allergic to dust mites and cockroaches (EWW!!). Although they are saying her Celiac labs were negative, it does appear that there is a sensitivity to gluten. So we are now in the process of getting her on a more gluten free diet again.
This past week, Adia has felt pretty crummy. Between bad headaches, and stomach aches, nausea, etc., she has had to miss some school. We are praying for wisdom as to how to better help her asthma without causing her to feel so cruddy. She is currently in bed now, missing another day of school, as last night she just felt awful. We have another appointment with the allergist tomorrow, so we pray for wisdom for her and for us as we try to work through this. Adia will be repeating the longer version of the breathing test to see how her lungs are responding to the treatment. I am praying her numbers will be much better. Adia has mentioned that her breathing has become easier, so I'm hoping that is a positive sign!
Please pray for Adia as her poor body has been hit so hard over the past couple of weeks. Between all the medication and steroids and now a change in diet, her body is probably having a hard time keeping up. Pray that she will be feeling better soon and that she won't have to miss too much school as we work through this process. Thank you for praying!
(In the next couple of months, I hope to get you an update on the family as its been awhile....)
