Ouchie!!!

So we went to the allergy and asthma specialist Monday after much prayer and frustration over Brayden's chronic cough and runny nose. After an hour and a half of interrogation by the Resident regarding these symptoms since they began about two years ago (which I barely remembered the last six months), they decided to do the allergy test. Being only 3 with a small back, they could only do 27 of the 50 pricks, which lets just say 27 was more than we could handle anyway. They made him lie flat on his stomach while I held his face and shoulders on the table and Mom held his hips down. Then came the ten minutes of all out screaming. I have never seen anyone do something so slow and not be phased by a screaming bloody murder child. Then after the procedure was done, the serum had to sit on his back for 15 minutes to see the reaction. I had to take a paper towel and pretend I was wiping his back to get Brayden to stop screaming, "take it off!!!" Finally things calmed down and Mom said, Brayden you have a bunch of pretty blue dots on your back. I of course had to be smart and say, "no I think they are purple." That perked Brayden's curiosity so he wanted a picture of them so he could decide. So I took a picture and Brayden said, "No guys they are purple and red." That was pretty cute. Anyway, after the 15 min the doc checked his back and said that the test was negative for everything tested. Wow, we have been giving Brayden allergy meds for 2 yrs with no allergies. Then the specialist said the next step would be to test for asthma as the most likely cause but due to his age, the PFTs aren't effective so giving him high doses of steroids orally and inhaled and seeing the results is the only way to diagnose it. He also wanted to do chest x-rays and sinus CAT scan to see if they showed any lung changes or sinus deformities. And the last thing is seeing a GI specialist to see if his reflux is causing all of this. We opted to do the scans first due to the potential problems with the steroids. Then, when we got home, we realized that the 27 tests were mainly indoor allergies and only 6 outdoor allergies. Since his symptoms are almost only present when outside, we are a little concerned that they might be ruling out allergies a little prematurely but we'll see. The results of his scans came in yesterday showing reactive airway disease in his lungs and inflammatory sinus disease with all sinuses completely plugged. I guess that explains the runny nose anyway. So we have 5 meds to give some for a week, some for 3 weeks, and then we see an ENT in 6 weeks. Hopefully this is the answer. Unfortunately for Brayden, his L ear tube began coming out this week and he has developed an infection in his middle ear and mastoid area so he had a high fever yesterday and some pretty bad ear pain. Hopefully, the antibiotics will make him feel better soon. Well, just wanted to give everyone the update on Brayden. Thanks for all the prayers and words of encouragement. We love you all.
Brayden is such a great picture kid. He even had to smile for his back picture.