First visit to pulmonologist

Yesterday, Cody, Eligh, Kinsley and I made the long two hour drive to the pulmonologist.  I already had it in my head that I would leave that doctor completely pissed off for wasting our time.  I truly felt as if my continuous complaints to their regular pediatrician were simply in my head.  Her breathing is fine and we are just paranoid.  But, that is not at all how it actually went.

The hospital is a children's hospital which is of course amazing in so many ways, while also completely depressing at the same time.  Upon checking in, we waited about five minutes before being called back to meet the nurse.  A few questions later and we were in the room waiting for the doctor.  First, though, we saw a medical student(cue again the anger) who asked us a packet worth of questions, because this packet did not arrive in time to be filled out at home.  But, when the doctor actually came in, it was a whole other ball game.  Our concerns with Kinsley's constant need to rest upon doing any exercise and always sounding winded were not at all in our head.  The doctor sent Kinsley and I for an X-ray, which she did great (she has had quite a few of her chest in the past year).  We came back upstairs and the doctor was back in our room a few minutes later.  Upon pulling up her X-ray, the doctor explained and showed that Kinsley's lungs are at their fullest capacity of air, which is actually pushing on her chest and even causing her back to curve due to all the added air in her lungs.  Her lungs were so full they are close to actually touching.  Basically, she cannot get all the air out of her lungs and it is trapped, causing her to have all the breathing problems she is having.  This is when I felt an odd sense of relief that all my concerns were true and that there is a reason for her actions.

Now what???

The doctor sent the nurse in to evaluate how she actually uses her inhaler on a regular basis, who then reported to the doctor.  The doctor came back in and said that based on her age, she is doing the best she possibly can with the inhaler and should be getting in all the meds as needed (and has been for a year or more).  If she wasn't getting all of the meds in then we could simply work on how she is breathing them in and come back in a month or so.  The doctor ordered a CT (which they could not get her in that day, he tried), so we have to go back Monday.  She is also on a more aggressive inhaler and has a follow up appointment to see if the meds are helping before the end of the month.

Now, we have to hope that on Monday she cooperates and does not have to be sedated for the CT (freaking out about the thought of that).