The Western Approach

So, Alyson was given 14 days of antibiotics, which officially made it about the third time she was on antibiotics in two months. This one was strong and incredibly hard on her stomach. She was referred to Children's Hospital for an upper GI study and a CT scan of her sinuses. The upper GI scan showed some moderate constipation, but did not show the reflux they were looking for. She was referred to the ENT as her CT scan showed evidence of chronic sinusitis. At this point in time our pediatrician had diagnosed her with Reactive Airway Disease and she had been given Zyrtec, Singulair, Albuterol, Flovent, and a nasal spray. For the last nine months she had been on the Zyrtec and Singulair. I did not beleive that the Singulair, Albuterol, or Flovent were helping and I did not even give her the nasal spray as an ENT had warned me against it with Andrew.

Off to the ENT and into the scare of my life. The doctor whom I do like. I had been to two of them with Andrew and chosen this one for Alyson as I liked him the best and many other children in town have been to him as well. After talking to us about the scan and her history, the doctor told us that he felt surgery was necessary to clean up the sinus, get a sample of the mucus to find the right antibiotic and to see what might be going on up there. He also talked to us about Cystic Fibrosis and family history of it. Even though we new of no family history, he told us that if they found polyps in her nasal cavity, they would send them off for testing and that it could likely be Cystic Fibrosis. He also felt that having her adenoids might help the situation.

I explained the bacteria in her blood that had caused her to pass out on me almost a year ago and he felt very likely that it was a sinus infection that had become septic. He explained that he has witnessed several children get meningitis from untreated sinus infections and so more the reason to go forward with the surgery.

After discussion with Jared we felt we had not choice but to move forward with this surgery, the hardest part was that it was one month away.