Notes from the Allergist IV

This morning Riley had a follow-up visit with Dr. M. for his asthma. So I bundled the kids into the car and we raced off to the office, and arrived there 8 whole minutes before his appointment was scheduled to start.

And then we waited. And waited. And waited some more. After about half an hour, I went to check at the desk to make sure that I hadn't mixed up the time (I did that once; I wrote down the time that I needed to leave the house instead of the time that the appointment started) but no, Dr. M. was just really really behind. We started Riley's appointment 45 minutes late, just as I was about to bail and reschedule for another day.

But I'm got that we stuck around, because we got some good news! Riley was healthy enough over the summer to take a break from his inhaled steroids.  So starting now, we don't have to give him any daily meds until he starts exhibiting asthma symptoms again.  

And I learned another really interesting asthma care item today. Our original asthma care plan, before Riley was put on daily inhaled steroids, was to start the inhaled steroids at the first sign of a cold and continue with them until the cold resolved. Dr. M. said that was the common sense approach, and parents and patients reported that it helped.  But recently there had been studies done to test the clinical approach (in the interest of evidence based medicine) and they found that inhaled steroids given that way (on the onset of illness) don't really help. To help you need to take them everyday.

So our plan right now is to see how Riley does med-free, and go back to see Dr. M. if/when the asthma kicks up. Dr. M. is fairly sure that Riley will need steroids again this winter. But we'll get a break for a month or so at least.