Abel's Momma: and the other side of 2011...........

My previous post shares all of the wonderful and great things that took place in 2011. I wanted so badly to include so much more of 2011 in that post, however I found myself holding back our worries of last year and focusing on all of the good. It is important for me to separate the two, simply to realize and remember what a great year we had learning and growing as a family. As I shared previously with all of the great came our handful of challenges. It all started in January; just like most kids Abel had been sick through the winter months. Unlike most kids though he didn't recover as quickly and we soon found ourselves wondering "is this normal?" Is it normal for my 1 year old to get a cough that doesn't go away for 6 weeks? Is it normal to be up all night with him coughing so horribly that he is throwing up? Is it normal to have a fever of 104 degrees every couple of weeks with no other symptoms? Is it normal that he hasn't gained weight in 5 months? If you asked our first Doctor he would have told you "Yes" and that I was a crazy first time mother. I didn't buy that first time "Crazy" mother crap....and soon found another Doctor, and thank God I did. One visit with our new Doctor and a set of lung x-rays she discovered that Abel had been suffering from pneumonia for god knows how long. I was amazed and thankful at her quick diagnosis! Great news....antibiotics will kick in rather quickly and in 10 days we can put this all behind us! WRONG! 10 days come and go and Abel seems to be on the mend, however four weeks go by and we are back to square one. All of the before mentioned symptoms back again. Long story short we discovered our 2nd round of pneumonia in 2 months. By this time not only had we been in and out of the Doctors office on a regular basis, but we were now regulars at the ER. Not fun! With the 2nd diagnosis of pneumonia so close to the first our Doctor was hesitant to think it was coincidence. Abel was quickly diagnosed with Asthma and we also soon found ourselves in the hospital mid April with our 3rd round of pneumonia. By this point he had been on two 5 day rounds of prednisone and daily steroid inhalers to keep his lungs strong enough to fight the pneumonia. Our Doctor was optimistic that the Asthma was treatable but wanted to rule out anything more serious. By this point you could officially call me a "CRAZY and WORRIED" first time mother. Not only did we just spend a weekend in the hospital with my baby hooked up to monitors and oxygen, but we found ourselves taking him to be tested for Cystic Fibrosis. Patients with multiple cases of pneumonia and Asthma are strong cases for CF. Waiting for the results of this test was as long and painful as the time we spent in the NICU with him when he was born (another story all together). Fast-forward to our results and we are overjoyed to say that Abel has Asthma and that we can control. After all of the ER visits (5 to be exact), multiple X-rays (5 or 6 I lost count), the oxygen and breathing treatments; we have this under control. He still gets sick more often than we would like, we will still have our fair share of Doctor and ER visits.....but we can say we are VERY lucky. Abel is VERY lucky. He is strong and resilient. I am thankful for the 5 weeks off of work that I took to care for him, thankful for the 2 months off of work Javy was with him. Thankful for the healthy boy that we see today.

Recovering in my new sleeping bag