Ethan...

We had a scare this week with Ethan that landed us in the hospital Wednesday night. He's been struggling with his breathing again and so last week I took him to the Dr. extremely frustrated. I vented for a few minutes about how frustrated I am that he doesn't seem to be getting better and how difficult it is for me to know when and how often to actually bring him in and what to do for him. After a good talk and some reassurance we got him set up on another regimen of breathing treatments and all seemed to be going well. For a couple of days earlier in the week he was working really hard to breath (was breathing really fast) but I figured it was because he's working so hard to crawl around and since he's army crawling he's on his stomach all day which I thought might be contributing. Anyways, Wednesday he came down with a fever but I thought it might be teething and we went about our day. That evening we were getting ready to make a trip to Costco and while Brett was changing his diaper, Ethan's lips started turning purple. We immediately got in the car and drove straight to our Dr.'s office (15 min. before he closed) and they admitted him into the hospital overnight for observation. It's hard to even describe how difficult it was to even think about putting him in the hospital. I spent the night there with him and they've put him on an oral steroid as well as upping the dose of his regular breathing medicines. They had a respiratory therapist come give him treatments every 4 hours and hooked him up to a monitor to measure his oxygen level. When he was admitted he was breathing at twice the normal rate which is why he hasn't been gaining weight (has only put on a pound since Jan.) because he's burning so many calories trying to breathe. He responded really well and was able to go home around noon yesterday. It was a hard night- he really didn't feel good and didn't want anyone to hold him little less look at him except me. They have diagnosed him with asthma and are telling me that the next couple years could be really difficult for him since he has gotten it so young. It is possible that he will outgrow it but the next year or two will probably be similar to the last few months. I love this boy so much and it hurts me to see him suffer in any way. I worry about his happy spirit and hope to be able to find a balance in our home where this is just part of normal life and he can be happy and live with this. We were able to catch the one happy moment he had in the hospital, when my brother was able to get a laugh out of him. (Love the hat? The hospital receives donations for things for the kids and somebody had made it- they gave him the cutest teddy bear and even had a toy for Aidan).We'd appreciate you all keeping him in your prayers!