More doctors, more tests, more drugs, and still no answers

At least not definitive ones.

Aaron went back to the pediatrician this past Friday. He wasn't as much better as the doctor had hoped/expected him to be at that point, so he increased his breathing treatments to every four hours, added an inhaled steroid twice a day, and gave him two weeks worth of an additional antibiotic to get rid of the sinus infection he also now has.

The increased breathing treatments seemed to help, and he seemed to get better throughout the weekend. I took him yesterday afternoon to an allergy/asthma specialist, hoping to hear that he was all better, but apparently not yet. They performed a lung function test, on which they hope to see at least 85%, and he was at 49 prior to a breathing treatment, and 20 points higher afterwards. This doctor upped his inhaled steroid dosage, put him on a 21 day series of prednisone, but told us we could decrease his breathing treatments to 3 times a day (with no nighttime treatments) through this week, and then only as needed. He goes back to this doctor in January for a chest x-ray, and to make sure all the silica dust is out of his lungs. At that point we try to figure out whether this was a one time thing, or something more.

The good news: Aaron is feeling much better and was even able to start back with p.e. today.

The bad news: The medications for asthma are incredibly expensive, even with insurance. Not counting our part of the hospital bill, which I so don't want to see, we are currently out of pocket more than $300 for our copays on doctor visits and medication copays. This tile floor is costing much more than initially anticipated.

The funny news: The steroids are majorly increasing Aaron's appetite. He ate 5 tacos last night! And they seem to be giving him definite food cravings. He currently is jonesing for fresh tomatoes, and last week he swore he would go into a Chinese food coma if he didn't have some immediately. Of course we have humored him on both fronts.