Life Changes

Things have been pretty crazy around The Cobb Household for a while now.  It seems like someone has been sick for almost the last 6 months.  In September, John Thomas got sick.  And, he got really sick.  It got worse & worse and developed into pneumonia.  I'm pretty sure we should have qualified for a buy one get one at the doctor office.  In October, our pediatrician diagnosed John Thomas with asthma...it seemed to rear it's head with the virus or whatever he's had the last couple of months.  They sent us home with a nebulizer.  We've had to do pulmicort twice a day & albuterol when needed (which is better than the 4 rounds of oral steroids we've already had to do).  On top of that, we found out that John Thomas is anemic.  He has to take an awful tasting dose of liquid iron supplement every day.  I was going to mix it in his food, but I didn't want him to have an aversion to whatever I was mixing it in, so now I just drop it in his mouth.  It's terrible.  

The pediatrician sent us to a pulmonologist ped specialist at Children's Hospital.  The doctor is fabulous!!  We had our appointment this past Friday.  It was a long, hard day.  John Thomas had to have a chest xray--which was awful.  We had to pin him down & he screamed & cried.  They decided that his reflux was back (remember that he had it when he was a baby...miserable), and apparently the asthma & reflux affect each other, so we are back on our meds.  This time I get to give him a pill that dissolves in his mouth (similar to a teething tablet, but bigger), and it tastes yummy, so he likes it. :)  They also put him on allergy medicine because his asthma also gets bad according to weather conditions (we had a problem after the pumpkin patch & when the weather changed & got really cold).  They took him off of the nebulizer and now we use an inhaler with a chamber thing that kind of looks like a bottle.  It's so much better because it only takes 30 seconds VS. the 15 minutes we were doing of breathing treatments 2 or more times a day (he hated the nebulizer--I had to hold him down--literally--for the entire time--it was awful).  The down side is that these new meds are expensive.

Also, I had to take Hadley to the doctor yesterday, and she has an ear infection--which may or may not be related to her negative ear pressure in her ears.

Life is really, really hard right now.  I'm not even going to try to sugar coat it.  I am thankful for my precious family & that my kids aren't really sick with something that can't be resolved (we saw some scary things while we were at Children's).  If you think about it, pray for us.  I'm trying to remind myself that this is just a phase in life.  We still know & trust that we serve a gracious & loving God.  We are trusting in the plan that he has for our lives. 

Jeremiah 29:11 

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.