I’ve been too busy to get this up until now, but we took Janie back in for a chest check on Wednesday. The hardcore antibiotics had cleared up the bronchitis and ear infections, so her breathing was clean. She had even gained a whole pound in the past week–when she started feeling better, she started eating again! This seems to indicate that it was just an infection, not asthma-related, so we did not do a chest x-ray or talk about breathing treatments. However, Dr. Vallance said that it seems her tendency is to not fight off colds well (true), and it seems her lungs have a tendency to get infected. So she asked me to keep a closer eye on Janie’s colds. If she hasn’t kicked them in 5-7 days or just seems to be wheezing and lingering on longer than the other kids (which she always does), I need to bring her in so that we can be more proactive with secondary infections and get her medicated if necessary. Since my tendency is to wait out colds and not give antibiotics for ear infections, this will be a mental shift for me. Looking back, Jane-bug was sick many more times (and for much longer) than Dr Vallance even realized, because I didn’t bother bringing her in. My new plan: pay more attention to Janie! Better safe than sorry.
The good news was that she was well enough to get her MMR and chicken pox vaccines this week! With the measles outbreak just down the road and the vast majority of our friends and acquaintance out here being anti-vax, I’m relieved to have all four of my kiddos caught up on their shots.