health & well-being

Having grown up as the daughter of two nurses, I have limited patience for illness. I went to school unless I was vomiting profusely, bleeding profusely, or had a temperature over 102. Seriously. Because of this, I had perfect attendance nearly every year in school. Until high school. When I discovered the joys of ditching. My lack in patience may also stem from the fact that, until I was diagnosed with Celiac's Disease, I never got sick. Chicken pox AND strep once. Terrible case of the flu once. That's it. Seriously. So having a child that struggles to be healthy is some-what new and frustrating to me.
Joel has not always had issues. Well. Scratch that. Since he was three months old, he has had severe eczema. Blisters on his skin that look as if his skin had been burned. Which CAN be considered a medical condition, but for all intents and purposes is not what I am referring to in this post. Eczema aside, Joel was healthy until shortly after he turned two. It was Christmas time, a few months after Joel's second birthday. I (somehow) noticed that his tonsils were the size of golf balls. So large that they were pressing against one another and making it difficult for him to breathe. We went to a same-day clinic, where he was diagnosed with tonsillitis. From that day forward, he was basically sick for the next six months solid. We went through twelve (yes, twelve) rounds of flu and cold with Joel (Lucas only got sick once in that time frame). We did antibiotics, steroids, blood work, chest x-rays. Nothing. He was just permanently sick. Finally there was a light at the end of the tunnel when July came around. Three weeks of perfect health. Then BOOM. Out of nowhere we found ourselves in urgent care one afternoon because he was struggling to breathe. They gave the diagnosis of Reactive Airway Disease (RAD). RAD is not rad. It sucks. Since Joel is under five, doctors do not want to give the diagnosis of asthma because there can be so many causes to breathing problems. So they label it as RAD. Which is like a blanket term for asthma and any related pulmonary issue. We received a prescription for abuterol and bought a nebulizer. We did breathing treatments until he went a couple days without coughing. We have since used the nebulizer for his RAD as needed. Which seems to be isolated to times when Joel has had a virus or infection. A few days ago, Joel caught conjunctivitis (pinkeye is a form of conjunctivitis). Red, goopy eyes. And breathing problems? Since he didn't have a cold or the flu, I didn't even think about RAD presenting itself. But it did. And it got out of control very quickly. Last night, home breathing treatments were not enough to keep his RAD in check. We tried giving him a breathing treatment at 10pm, but Joel screamed and cried, thrashed and kicked. It took two of us to pin him down and hold the mask on. Even then, we figured the treatment was useless since he was so hysterical (a reaction he has NEVER had to his breathing treatments). Within less than an hour, his breathing got much worse. Robert took him to the ER. Where they gave Joel another breathing treatment and steroids to help inflammation in his lungs. Unfortunately, his breathing has not been much better today. It doesn't help that Joel only got about five hours of sleep last night, if that. His whining and tantrums have not been helping. At all. Nor have they helped our frayed nerves. It could be worse. I am VERY aware of this. But dealing with a three year old that most likely has asthma sucks. I hate seeing him go through this. Especially because he doesn't understand.
But I must run. Because Lucas either has a bloody nose or a tomato stuck in his nostril. Ah, the joys of parenting...