A Week Filled With...

Sleepless nights, 3 trips to the ER and two to the Dr. Who is sick? Annie. She is doing much better now and so are we now that we know what is going on. It all started early Wednesday Am. Annie woke up screaming and making this very strange sound. It sounded like a suppressed cough, or something Asthma like.It was like she could not catch a full breath. When it did not go away after a half an hour we went right to the ER. The doctor could not find anything wrong (clear chest and great oxgen levels) and since she has stopped the weird breathing, he released her saying she must have had a bad dream that caused her to panic. Later that morning while she was with my Mom she did it again. The doctor's office was still not open, so another trip to the ER. Since this was the second episode that day they did a chest X-ray to see if something was stuck. Nothing was, and they advised if she did it again to video tape it. We followed up with her pediatrician that afternoon and thought that it was GERD (acid reflux) which she did have issues with when she was little, and she was reacting to the acid. He suggested if she do it again to call them for an RX for an antacid.

Thursday was a normal day and she did just fine. Friday at 12am, 1 am and 3am she had episodes. The 3am one lasted an hour and we went right back to the ER with a video on my phone in hand. He was perplexed and decided to follow the pediatrician's diagnosis and filled an RX. She also had a temp of 102 at that time and I decided to go back to the pediatrician with the video in hand. After seeing the video and talking to some fellow doctors in the office we got a true diagnosis: Vocal Cord Dysfunction. What is that? That is what we said. Once he told us it all made sense! Here is some basic info on it:

Vocal cord dysfunction is the uncontrolled closing of the vocal cords when you breathe in. The symptoms can seem to be the same as those of asthma and may occur alone or along with asthma. If you have asthma and vocal cord dysfunction, it may be difficult for you to tell the difference between symptoms of the two conditions. Vocal cord dysfunction is often caused by postnasal drainage or gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and improves with treatment of these conditions.

• Usually is young and female.
• Has an abrupt attack but recovers quickly.
• May be able to speak during an attack, but often has a hoarse voice.
• May improve when he or she pants or sings.
• Has more problem breathing in than out.
• May have a dry cough.
• Usually has normal results on lung function tests, such as spirometry.

They are thinking that it's caused by the GERD and are treating that for a few months and it should go away. Only time will tell. She may need to see an ENT to make sure this is really what it is, but once reading about it we knew it was. It was exactly what she was doing. The high temp. was unrelated, just a viral thing going around. She had not been sleeping or eating well for a week so we knew something was up and that would explain the fever. She has not had another episode since yesterday early AM, so we are hoping the medicine is helping and it will stay that way.