My son and the Children’s Hospital

 

Since my son was 6 days old, he has frequented the emergency room of the Children’s Hospital.  Maybe I am somewhat exaggerated.  

 

When he was about 6 days old, right after I was released from the hospital from giving birth, we were back to the hospital again.  However, this time, we were heading to the Children’s hospital instead.  His blood pressure kept falling and he was loosing the ability to stay awake and the energy to take in any milk.  He was admitted to the hospital for having jaundice.  When he was a bout 3 years old, he got a mosquito bite so bad that he had to be treated at the emergency room.  When he was about four years old, he got an asthma attack so severe that he had to fight for his life, with doses of drugs administered every two hours  for two nights.  Since then, asthma medication has become part of his daily life. 

 

To make things worse, he was diagnosed with tree nut allergy about two years ago.  We were warned by the doctor to distance him from any food containing traces of tree nuts.  So now, in addition to the two types of asthma medication (one for daily prevention and one for treatment when attack occurs), we have four types of medication should a tree nut allergy attack occur.  We have to read the labels whenever giving him a treat.  I have to participate in every party preparation to make sure that no tree nut treat is provided.  His teachers have to go over with us the content of the food whenever giving him something new to eat.  

 

It has become quite challenging whenever we go on a trip.  We have to lug along bags of medications and a nebulizer.  In the US , it has not been a problem for us to go through the security gate.  I believe that it is the overwhelming rate of children having some sort of allergy or asthma.  We did encounter security agents in Japan calling to verify those drugs.  I was puzzled by that because we were already screened as we left the United States and were in the airplane all the way to Japan , without leaving the aircraft.  What was the purpose of the screening?  Maybe, Japanese airport just need to create some jobs for these people.  Maybe, they would not trust America ’s security system.  Maybe, they thought there was a way for the passengers to smuggle something out of thin air.  Maybe they could not understand the English description of the drugs.  Maybe there are no children in Asia having asthma and tree nut allergy.  Sorry!  I am wondering off the subject. 

 

That is not the end of the story yet.  About half a year ago, he was infected with Molluscum, a viral infection of the skin.  The doctor stated that it would take about two years to heal by itself and no actions were required.  What he meant was to leave it untreated and it will eventually heal.  Isn’t that strange?  By the way, we were told to continue our normal activities, including swimming and not to worry about it.  The only time it will spread is by sharing towels and with close skin contact.  However, my son kept scratching himself and the area of infected seemed not confined.  it This time, the doctor suggested us to get it treated.  So now, we have to go to the doctor’s office every two weeks for the skin treatment.  We don’t know how long the treatment will take. 

 

Parenting is never easy but this seems to be somewhat extreme to us.  All these seem to contribute to his eczema.  We were told that kids with eczema are more likely to have allergy and asthma.  His dad has hay fever.  I like to joke that the kids are inheriting all the bad genes from us.  We do hope that his sister does not have to go through all these.  However, she seems to develop some sort of allergy.  When she is older, we may take her to the clinic and test which pollen she is allergic to.  Or maybe we should move to an area where there aren’t that many trees.

 

Anyway, all we can hope for is for them to outgrow all these. 

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