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Friday, February 11, 2011

Yet another specialist, yet another worry

The roller coaster continues. It seems 2011 is bent on trying to break me. However, I'm not giving in yet.

The latest scary part of the ride? Lindsay. Since she was a baby, Lindsay has had a dry cough at night, especially in the winter. She also seems to get croup every winter without fail. This year's bout was the scariest yet, and finally made the doctors sit up and take notice.

For those of you that aren't parents, croup is when during an illness, the airway constricts, and the cough that results sounds like a seal barking. (No, really.) Most parents out there can back me up on this, but it's terrifying the first time it happens to your child, but it's almost a rite of passage as a parent. After four kids, I've dealt with croup many, MANY times. This was the first time in my almost 11 years as a parent where I was SCARED during a bout of croup.

The doctor that saw her that day was not her normal doctor. She told me what tests I needed to ask the regular doctor to run. The concern is, that croup is something most children grow out of. 8 year olds are not supposed to get it.

We saw Lindsay's regular doctor yesterday, and she agreed and ordered the tests that need to be run. A chest x-ray, neck x-ray, and a lung function test (to check for asthma). We're still waiting to hear back on when the appointment for that last one is, but she had the x-rays yesterday.

As I was going to bed late last night, I noticed there was a missed call on my phone, and a voicemail message. I sat in the dark and listened to it. It was the doctor, and she had gotten the x-rays results. Lindsay's lungs look fine, as well as the soft tissues in her neck. Then came the word you don't want to hear in a call about test results.. . ."However. . ."

She then went on to say that there are abnormalities with the vertebrae at the bottom of Lindsay's neck, as well as other abnormalities that look like spina bifida. Not exactly the news you want to hear in the middle of the night.

I woke the hubby to tell him, because I had to tell someone RIGHT THEN. Today some emails to family went out. Right now, we have no idea what this means. We don't even know if it's related to the croup/coughing issue or not. It could be that she "just" has asthma, and finding these abnormalities was just a coincidence. The doctor said this goes outside her realm of expertise, so we have a referral in to a specialist.

In the meantime, we have to just wait. And try to stay away from Google.

3 comments:

The Mrs. said...

And prayers for Lindsey start...NOW!

alice said...

prayers are being said, Meghann. Whatever it is, here is what I know - with all you have already handled, you can handle this as well. And you're right - stay far, far away from Google!

Lacey said...

That's scary! Did they shed any light on why it was just now being detected (I thought it was usually detected at birth?)? Prayers going up!