Winter update-1 round of steroids

Valentino’s lung clearing regimen.

by Tiffany Ana

We managed to get through this winter, so far, with just one round of steriods (4 days).

Around Christmas time, Valentino was progressively getting fussier and fussier and was very snizzly. On Christmas Eve the worst came out as he was having screaming fits and was miserable–congested and having trouble breathing.

The week prior to Christmas, I had to increase Val’s nebulizer (albuterol) treatments to every 3-4 hours and this makes him jittery and irritable. By Christmas Eve, he could only sleep on an off in 15-20 minute bouts, but couldn’t get completely comfortable enough to sleep soundly and was waking several times in the night screaming and crying. The next day I spoke to the staff at Children’s and Dr. Sami called in a prescription for steroids and by day 2 on the steroids, Val was better.

I’ve noticed that when Val is wheezing or congested, he will rear his head back and scream and can’t seem to get comfortable laying down. As much as it’s hard to see him uncomfortable, I’m glad that I’m able to recognize particular reactions he has now so that I can act quicker than last year when his cold really set in and he was struggling to breathe for longer than I realized.

After seeing that Val was coming home from daycare with lots of various cold and flu symptoms, I decided to switch him out of daycare and to an in-home nanny/babysitter.

Valentino’s overall health has improved and his nanny pays close attention to making sure he gets lots of good meals and snacks and plenty of rest. She’s very consistent with his enzymes and does albuterol treatments 1x per day in the afternoon. This works much better than having him do nebulizer when I get home from work. Late in the day, the albuterol leaves Val jittery and a bit wired.

I am anxious to move past all of the rainy, cold, windy weather we have been having and into the warmth of Spring so that we can be less worried about battling cold and flu viruses.