Wednesday, May 6, 2009

good news from the pulmonologist

We went to see Whitney's pulmonologist yesterday for our regular 3 month check-up, but more importantly as a follow-up to our cardiologist appt. last week regarding the change in her breathing and the change in the look of her chest. It was a very good visit and we received good news- from her neck down (heart and lungs) all sounds good and appears to be in working order!!! He thinks there is some sort of upper-respiratory issue going on that is contributing to the labored breathing and change in the appearance of Whitney's chest. Her tonsils are enlarged and based on the sounds of her breathing (in addition to the tracheomalacia and laryngomalacia) he believes her adenoids are also enlarged. She is much too young to consider any sort of operation regarding tonsils and adenoids, but he thinks starting nasonex nasal spray once a day will help with her breathing and will hopefully alleviate any "laboring" or difficulty she is having. I told him about our visit to the Indiana School for the Deaf (almost 3 weeks ago) and how they informed me that she has fluid (the pulmonologist thinks it is probably more of a mucus consistency) behind both ear drums. He said this goes along with what he thinks is going on - and that is that her change in breathing is due to some sort of upper -respiratory issue and that we do not have anything to worry too much about as this relates to her heart and lungs, phew!!!!

I will try to elaborate more on our visit to the ISD (Indiana School for the Deaf) in a later post, but a brief summary of our visit 3 weeks ago confirmed that Whitney has fluid behind both ear drums and has mild hearing loss in both ears (according to the test results from the non-sedated ABR - auditory brain response- tests performed by the audiologists and the ISD).

We are VERY happy about the visit to the pulmonologist yesterday... it is such a relief to hear that nasonex once/day will hopefully help alleviate any labored breathing Whitney is experiencing and that we should not worry too much about anything going on with her lungs and/or heart - it seems to be all upper-respiratory related, yeah!!!

Here are some cute pictures, just because :)

Whitney working on her rolling skills:





Anne wearing the PolyFlinders dress my mom saved from Easter when I was 2 1/2 yrs old:


10 comments:

Rebecca said...

Laura & Mike, we are so relieved to hear about the breathing issue. I've been thinking about Whitney a lot today. She looks great rolling around! Anne looks so adorable in that dress. Someone should make a doll that looks like Anne!

Sharon said...

Yay! for good news from the pulmonologist. Your girls are both adorable and Whitney has the most beautiful blue eyes I've ever seen.

Ellen said...

Fabulous! So happy to hear the good news.

Adrienne said...

The girls are precious and Whitney has the most beautiful eyes!! So glad everything went well at the pulmo.!

Sarah, Andy, Murdoch, and Deucey said...

Awesome news! I love those pictures! Miss you guys - glad to hear that you are doing so well.

S

Bethany said...

Your girls are so stinkin cute ... love the 3rd pic too! Hope this works to clear up her labored breathing!

Cheryl said...

Hope the Nasonex works!Whitney's eyes are such a beautiful blue!Anne looks adorable in the little dress:)That's great your Mom kept it.

Michelle said...

That is good news! Yay!

kathy.stadler said...

So glad you have good news!
We just got back from Colorado
and glad to hear the good news.
The pictures are precious..
good looking girls!
God bless all.
Love, Aunt Kathy

Unknown said...

Very happy to hear good news about Whitney's breathing - she looks happy about the rolling! Anne is lovely in that dress -
Love to all -