Paradox Blog

However modern or advanced the field of medicine is, it is not an exact science. There is a lot of guesswork involved. Recently Samantha has her 2nd medical crisis or near crisis, since her visit to the emergence room when she was about 18 months old. After a weekend full of activities, she developed slight fever and her seemingly allergy-related coughing turned nasty. She had been coughing on and off for two weeks ever since the hay fever season started. I took her to see her pediatrician. At first her doctor diagnosed her to have virus-infected bronchitis. After I volunteered a little more information, he started to suspect Asthma. I resist the very idea of Asthma with all my heart as I had witnessed my own mother suffered the air-gasping episodes and how the side effects of Asthma treatment affected her appearance as well as her quality of life. Her face swelled up, her limbs were puffy and she bruised easily. But I had to give the doctor's diagnosis the benefit of doubt and agreed to evaluate our daughter as such.

Our daughter did have some of the indicators that point the doctor to diagnose Asthma. She had dry coughs the day the doctor saw her, she coughed at night sometimes to the point of vomiting, she coughs when she has too much physical activity, and I thought I heard her wheeze one night. But to me Asthma is having difficulty to breath and shortness of breath, which I didn't observe in Samantha. As cautious as we wanted to be, the prospect of her dealing with a potentially life threatening life-long disease like Asthma saddened me. I left the pediatrician's office with a weary heart.

As the doctor had ordered, Samantha and I set off to get her "spacer device" and Albuterol inhaler prescription filled. Apparently this was a popular medicine as three different drugstores we went to were in short supply. We found the medicine on the fourth try. All through the ordeal, my mind could not help but racing through our daughter's future, the possible limitations this ailment could have on our daughter and the potential danger it entails. The thought of her suffering this ailment was too much to bear. I was depressed and under a lot of stress. The stress got to me. The next day I developed flu-like symptoms.

Never had I been happier to be sick before. All the stress made me vulnerable to germs and very likely I got the germs from our daughter, which meant hers was likely a viral infection and not an Asthma attack. Besides, the inhaler treatment did not improve her coughs. The doctor had also instructed that if the inhaler did not help we should stop after two days and go ahead to treat her as viral infection. The more her dad and I observed her closely, the more certain we found her coughs were induced by running nose and mucus in her airway instead of a restricted airway as is in Asthma. There are a lot of ambiguities between the symptoms of Asthma and a common respiratory infection. We know that Asthma symptoms also include mucus in the airways. But our gut feelings and hope were that this was not a case of Asthma. After a week of rest, Samantha had stopped coughing completely.

We are not out of the woods yet. All have indicated that Samantha is susceptible to Asthma. From now on, I cannot hear her caught without worrying that she might have Asthma. When she pants for air after strenuous playground activities, I worry that she might have "exercise-induced Asthma". Around the house, I look at our old curtains and new carpets and see dust mites. When the temperature dips, I cranked up the heater for fear of her getting a cold. What's the big deal, you may ask. If she has Asthma, just deal with it. If she does, that would be all we can do. But I don't want to subject her to any unnecessary Asthma treatment. Can you imagine enlarging the bronchioles of a four-year-old child who has all the years ahead of her to naturally grow and correct her physical condition? That's what the bronchodialating Albuterol inhaler does. Can you imagine giving doses of steroids to a four-year-old child that would make her face swells, make her voice hoarse and increase her risk to infections? Most Asthma medicines contains steroid. Maybe now you would understand why I fear Asthma so much.