A Trip to Columbia...

Missouri that is!

We had a follow-up visit with the Pulmonologist in Columbia on Friday for Lillian. Chad was able to go to this appointment. I never "expect" him to get the time off or even "get" to go to these things, but after the last appointment I think he saw the emotional toll it took on me and he wanted to be there as an extra listening ear for the family and work was at a place where he was able to slip away. Did I not marry a GREAT Daddy or what?

We were only scheduled to meet with the head nurse on the team to go over the charts and journals and then hopefully get Lillian down to fewer doses of medicine a day. BUT, they changed her to see the head nurse and a doctor on the team. (There is the HEAD doctor and then a team of doctors and nurses under him that work with the patients for all the in between follow-ups and check-in appointments.) Dr. Ben was encouraged by Lillian's progress with her lung function, decrease in "bad areas" and trouble areas that he took her off of two of her three inhalers and only left her on her ONE "preventative" inhaler twice a day on a very low dose. Can I hear an AMEN and the angels singing?

All of this does not mean she is in the clear. She is currently sick with a cough. The night before we went she was on the nebulizer (NOT GOOD!) so we are on the THREE inhalers because she is sick, but that is only twice a day (instead of four times a day EVERY day) and it has not turned into pneumonia like we are use to at this point in an illness. We had a new "Asthma Action Plan" written up and had to be briefed on new procedures for what ifs. All very overwhelming, but so much more doable than last time!

She is still considered to have "Severe Childhood Asthma," but they are more hopeful that she may outgrow all of this. They base this statement on the fact that in the past six weeks she was able to decrease he excess lung capacity and reverse some of the negative effects that the last two plus years of straining to breathe in and out have caused with just a low dose of medication.

God has provided us with great doctors in Columbia and we feel so blessed. He is good ALL THE TIME!