Cough

We've had an annoyance in this house for the past few months....a cough.

A cough that happens overnight and keeps most of us awake.

It hasn't been fun.

This goes back all the way to November. Cassandra started with this cough overnight that went on for weeks. During the day she was pretty well-would maybe cough sporadically here and there, but nothing major. Overnight? Different story. She'd be up anywhere from a half hour to over 2 hours just straight coughing.  Nothing helped her-Vicks baby rub, humidifier, baby cough syrup, steamy bathrooms, cold air. After about 2 weeks of this, we took her to the docs.  They had us try allergy meds with her for a week...no improvement. Back to the docs she went and they (a different doctor) gave us Amoxicillin. It seemed to work, but a few days after she stopped taking it, the cough slowly came back.

Pretty much right after the holidays, it came back in full force. Up every night with these coughing fits/attacks. She went to her 2 year appointment at the end of January and at that point had been coughing every night for a good 3 weeks. I was hoping her pediatrician would do something for us...and he did! We were sent home with a nebulizer and an Rx for Albuterol to try during her attacks.  I was so thankful that we had something else to try with her!

Of course the first few nights we have the nebulizer, Cassandra didn't cough (go figure)! But a few days later, it started up again. So, overnight I went in and gave her a treatment. It seemed to help-she fell back asleep and was good the rest of the night. The next few nights she coughed again and these times the treatments did nothing for her. She still continued to cough.

I called her doctor after about a week of trying it and told him it wasn't helping. He referred us to an allergist at this point.  So I call the allergist (on a Tuesday) and can't get her in for a MONTH! The thought of being awake every night for a month was torturous to me.

Well, things got really bad for her. Tuesday night (the day we called the allergist) she was up for almost 6 hours overnight coughing! Which means so were we! Wednesday and Thursday nights were really bad too-she was up way longer than her usual 30min-2hr time frame. So, Friday I called the allergist and told them what was going on. And?  They got me in THAT day! I was so relieved!!

 I take her to the appointment and tell the doctor what's been happening. He said the 3 main reasons for coughing at her age is allergies, asthma, and reflux. They decided that she should have a skin test done for allergies (cue my panic!). And they were doing it right then and there!  Cassandra did SO well though-they got the first 2 strips done before she realized what was happening and only cried for less than a minute. She was a trooper. And....everything came out negative. No allergies. And you'd think if it was asthma, the nebulizer would have helped. And if it's reflux, why doesn't it happen at naptime when she's lying flat? Hmmmm.

So, the allergist decided that he wants to treat her for both allergies and asthma. So she got put on Singulair and Nasonex for the next month to see what happens. If it helps, she might stay on them awhile. If it doesn't, then we either try upping the dose or we try treating reflux and see what happens. At least we have a game plan at this point.

I'm happy to say that the allergist appointment was 2 weeks ago now. Cassandra is a champ at taking her Singulair-it's a chewable tablet and she actually asks for it most days! The Nasonex is a different story. The first few days it was a struggle-Gabe holding her down, me spraying up her nose. But after a few days, she just stood there and would let me do it. So, it's getting better! 

And the coughing?! It's improving. She has had a night here and there where she coughs for maybe 20 minutes, but that's it!  The strange thing is that in November 2012, she had something similar happen but it only lasted a few weeks-not a few months. So I don't know if the cough is going away just because it's going away, or if the medicine is truly helping her. I'm hoping this isn't a "thing" we go through every year that's for sure. However, I'm happy that currently we are all back to getting some sleep and the coughing has subsided for now.