Quite a scare.

Wow, Cole gave us quite the scare last week. I took him in for a cough that was getting worse and worse, and once again they did a chest x-ray. In this film, his lung still looked compressed, just like it did a month ago when they said he might have a food allergy that was causing a gas buildup in his belly. Well, since there had been no change in the condition, the doctor was a little worried. After looking at his xrays, she determined that it was not croup or pneumonia, but the wheezing was partially due to his lung not being able to fully inflate. Then she said the words that would make anyone cringe, she wanted to send him to Children's Mercy to get some more tests to rule out a mass or tumor. I felt like a deer in the headlights. I felt like I was ok, but I completely tuned everything out and didn't hear anything else she said. I felt like I was in a fog, til I called Jonny and broke down. I know it wasn't bad news yet, but given my family history, I was so sure that it was going to be awful. Jonny came home from work right away, and we ended up being able to get into Mercy that afternoon. Thankfully Kenny and Courtney were off and came to stay with Aiden. I was so prepared for the worst, I had packed Cole's jammies and his favorite blanket. They ended up doing a couple of ultrasounds and a test called a fluoroscopy. On the ultrasound, they were trying to get a simultaneous look at the lungs in action, because it seemed like one wasn't working as well as the other. This was really difficult, so they had to order the fluoroscopy. The reassuring part was that they could tell via the ultrasound that there were no masses. I felt so relieved at that moment. During the fluoroscopy, he was on a table, with the xray machine positioned over him. On the screen, we could see the image of his lungs working, in real time. It was very clear that one side of his diaphragm was expanding, giving the lung room to inhale. The other side, however, was not moving at all, or if it did, it moved in the opposite direction, pushing up onto the lung. This is a side effect that they frequently see when someone has had surgery in that area and the nerve gets traumatized. So, they know what it is, but not why it is occurring. We are going to go see a Pulmonologist soon to determine what to do next. I can't believe the range of emotion we all went through on that day! Through it all, he was so happy and cooperative and sweet, we are so lucky.