appointments and doggie sitting

Katelyn finally had her pediatric pulmonology appointment yesterday. Good news- she doesn't have any allergies to the things they tested her for. They were mainly environmental things like dust, pets, and grass. Katelyn did very well although she really disliked the allergy testing! She didn't mind the lung function test so that was good. Interestingly though, her lung function this time was not as good as just over a month ago when I thought she was doing so much worse. After a dose of albuteral it went up 8%.
So... The NP does believe that she has asthma, which was a little bit of a bummer to me. We had been thinking that she was doing so much better, and she was, but apparently she was also doing a lot worse before then we thought. According to how she is doing now she is still having "uncontrolled asthma" and needs to be treated. I had really come to feel that she just had a bad cold that took months to get rid of. The NP thinks that the pneumonia that she had in January really set the asthma symptoms in motion. Also, according to the NP, it is not normal for a kid to have pneumonia two years in a row as well as bronchitis a number of times. Most likely she has always had asthma which made simple colds go to these extremes. Also, even though she is doing well right now the NP believes that if she were to get a cold it would really take a toll on her again.
So.... We need to get her lungs perfect so that everyday things will be easy for her and that simple colds can stay simple colds. Starting this morning she began taking a low dose inhaled steroid and she will go back to the PPNP at the end of September. My list of questions is growing quickly for that appointment. Yesterday was quite overwhelming to me (and Katelyn, I'm sure) so I just couldn't seem to think of many things to ask about.


On to Ben, who is practicing "doggie sitting", as Katelyn calls it, in this picture...
He had another checkup on those adorable little ears of his. Good news... The Doctor said they look the same as the other day and possibly even a tiny bit better. They still have fluid but no infection! Phew!