Sickness

These past three weeks have been the hardest weeks in my life. I was sick with the flu, it was not fun. I was lucky enough to have five days off to recover. But with that Carter got my sickness and it turned into pneumonia. It scared me so much to see him like that. He is still coughing from it today, but has great lung sounds and his xray was good too. His doctor has ordered him to be on his plumicort until march with no incidences. I hope to God that he does not get sick like this again these coming cooler seasons. It scares me so much that in his short life he has had three major lung sicknesses (RSV, bronchitis and pneumonia).
He hates to sit and take his medicine though. He is on albuterol (3-5 times a day) and the plumicort ( twice daily). His pedi has said to start to wean him off the albuterol. I was confused on the two medicines until last week.
Albuterol [I will call it AB] is a bronchodilator that relaxes muscles in the airways and increases air flow to the lungs.
Albuterol inhalation is used to treat or prevent bronchospasm in people with reversible obstructive airway disease. Albuterol is also used to prevent exercise-induced bronchospasm. (http://www.drugs.com/albuterol.html)

Pulmicor [I will call it P] contains budesonide which is a corticosteroid. Budesonide prevents the release of substances in the body that cause inflammation.
Pulmicort is used to prevent asthma attacks. It will not treat an asthma attack that has already begun. It works by decreasing irritation and swelling in the airways, which helps to control or prevent asthma symptoms. (http://www.drugs.com/pulmicort.html)

In a nut shell AB is fast acting, it lasts from 4-8 hours in the system and then you need another one. Right now Carter is getting minimum three to maximum five a day. The pedi wants him off them with in five days. P is the preventative medicine to try to stop the inflammation, like said above it will not stop it (which is what the AB is for). Now, for the next six months Carter is on the P and we will have him assessed again to see how is progress is.

What sucks is that this is the time he always gets sick, its just the time in general everyone gets sick. The weather is changing, allergies act up and sometimes it gets worse. I have to be on pins and needles every time the poor child coughs because it scares me that he could be sick again. I am always checking his lungs to make sure he is not wheezing. My EMT instructor was so right about not knowing your lung sounds until you hear them for yourself. Pneumonia sounds disgusting. I cannot even describe it to you. The best I can say is imagine having a wet rag in your lung and attempting to breathe.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9C5RFb1qWT8 ---> is what it sounds like. And for my baby to have that made it even worse.

What was even harder was that I was giving him the treatments and they were not working. It took a trip to the pedi and the ER (with a prescription for an antibiotic, which confirmed he had bacterial pneumonia)


As for the other man in my life, he isn't doing to hot either. He went into the hospital when I was sick with major chest pains and the doctors said he had massive reflux. They gave him some medication (which was to strong for him and made him sick) He went to his GP and he thinks he has an ulcer. He has a scope in November (two months away...joy) For now we are just doing trial and error for what he can do and cannot do. I have found some natural things to help him with the pain, as well as xantac to help in the mean time. We even got peppermint Altoids because I read that peppermint is supposed to help (double duty in some aspect too, fresh breath...calming stomach) It is so bad that he can't even work. He is taking a leave of absence starting very soon and moving back home. The stress is getting to both of us. He (and I and Carter) are miserable. I hate to see him like this because this is not him. He has lost a lot of weight because he can't eat.

What makes it harder is that he is 5 hours away and I cannot do anything to help. I feel so helpless because the man I love is in pain and I am supposed to be there for him and I can't be. He seems happier already that he will be home soon and get the rest he needs. He has told me for almost 2 weeks now that he hates his job because of the stress. I don't blame him. Pearson is a huge air port and he is running around the whole thing trying to check his guards and make sure they are doing their job. It may sound like an easy job, but there is so much he has to do regarding licenses (he needs his air side, one to drive on the tarmac, one to get into certain parts of the airport, etc) and they are hounding him. He works 12 hour days. Drives 45-90 minutes back and forth for a commute. And his words "deals with idiots" daily. Its all unneeded stress in his life. They ask him why he hasn't got them and he is honest and tells them that he has no time, even on his days off he doesn't want to deal with work (who does really?)

Right now we are just taking it one day at a time and hoping that everyone is going to get better in due time. Being sick is the hardest thing for a family. It puts so much stress on people. You can do everything to prevent it, but sometimes it just will not work.