to the pulmonologist we go!

I'll admit it, I read too much. If its possible that one could read too much, its me. There is a running joke that I am obsessed with knowing everything (perhaps its my type A personality) that when I tell someone something, their first response is "Don't Google it Erin!"

Needless to say, I have read every. single. last. laryngomalacia article there is out there. Every medical study, every medical journal publication, every blog post, every single last thing I could fine. I know that what Cooper has should be resolved by now. I know it. Our ENT knows it. And yet its not. So off to the pulmonary specialist, pulmonologist, Dr. Elliott we go.

To say we were excited, we meaning Rick and I. (Coop is pretty sick of doctors at this point). After two years of stidor, coughing and many many many dirty looks from moms that obviously know more about our situation than we do, we were very hopeful Dr. Elliott was going to find us an answer. We were excited.

Unfortunately, excitement was not what we felt at the end. Stressed and overwhelmed come to mind.

Dr. Elliott asked a some TON questions. He said first off, no kid should have to cough all the time. He said he wasn't entirely convinced Cooper had pnemonia. He listed off about 15 different tests he thought he should run. Tests for cystic fibrosis, tracheoesophageal fistula, even immune deficiency diseases since Cooper is always sick. He talked about how the scopes Dr. Brager had done, just didn't go far enough into Coop's respiratory system to rule out all the causes of chronic cough and quite frankly laryngomalacia should be resolved by now. 

I think he started to see the stress on our faces because he stopped to say he wanted to overwhelm us now, so we have more time to digest everything. So we are ready when he calls for another test instead of being stressed by it. He also must have seen my mind wander into Google-town because he immediately said, "Don't go Goggling CF. I will tell you what it says, it says CF is the scariest, most debilitating lung disease out there. I don't think he has it, we just have to rule it out, so don't go making yourself more scared." I had to laugh because I have heard it so many times before. And I can honestly say, aside from goggling how to spell tracheoesophageal fistula, I haven't Googled anything.

So we start the testing on Tuesday, September 4th. They were able to coordinate a bunch of stuff into one day. We will have a follow up chest X-Ray to check the status of the pnemonia, it is in fact pneumonia, a cystic fibrosis sweat test and then meet him in the office for another visit. He hopes to get a better feel for Cooper's baseline since we saw him the day after we got out of the hospital.

So I am no longer excited. But I am hopeful that Dr. Elliott will find the answers we have been searching for and bring some relief to our sweet boy. And we will continue to follow out previous realizations to continue to let go and let God and I will try a new thing where I don't read anything at all.