Thursday, May 28, 2009

Asthma Update

So going off the Nebulizer for the summer didn't work out for Devin. :(

Last Friday I decided that we would give it try over the long week-end. A couple of days ago I noticed that Devin was doing some rapid breathing so I was keeping an eye on it to see if it got worse. Yesterday, Wednesday, I got a call at work from his school. Devin was having a reaction to the "Coffee Sand" in the sensory table and couldn't stop coughing. I instructed his teacher to bring him outside for fresh air to see if that helped and if not, then to give him his Nebulizer. The fresh air helped Devin to clear out his lungs and they kept him away from the "Coffee Sand." When I picked up Devin after lunch I asked to see the container for the mystery "Coffee Sand." As soon as I opened the empty container (it only had the dusty remnants left) Devin started coughing again. I wrote down the (WRONG) ingredients.

Here are the CORRECT ingredients:
coffee grinds (which you have to bake out)
cornmeal
flour
salt

Its ends up the consistency of gray sand hence the name.

I ended up taking Devin to the doctor in the afternoon because I wasn't feeling confident about his breathing. His Pulse Ox was down to 96~ not terrible, but not great for a kid. His lungs were nice and clear though~ no wheezing! I talked to his doctor about his reaction to the "Coffee Sand" and she said it definitely sounded like an asthmatic reaction and next time you can just give him the Neb to help him stop coughing. Unfortuntely I had copied the wrong ingredients down the first time so I showed the Doctor the ingredients for pretzels! Whoops! I guess I wasn't looking carefully! (They had put the coffee sand in a large pretzel container.)

Anyway, Devin is now back on the Nebulizer until at least mid-June when the height of Pollen season is over. Now I just have to figure out what caused him to have that reaction to the Coffee Sand....

2 comments:

Mel said...

Wow! I hope he won't be exposed to that coffee sand every time he goes to school now!

Shauna said...

I'm sorry :( Poor Devin. I hope he does not get exposed to the coffee everyday.