Clarification

I just realized many of you reading the blog might not be aware of all the goings on since I have last posted. The comment in my last post, "Cate and I stayed home from church so as not to scare away any visitors with her cough and purple face" may have found you quite curious and possibly frightened! Well, about the 3rd week in September Ryan came home with a cough from school. No big deal, they pass things around a school like candy on Halloween day. The thing with this cough was it was really severe. What started out as a minor cold turned into a very violent coughing spasm! What's worse is Catitlyn started coughing just a few weeks later, when we were in the states. After much research , a few trips to the Dr (which, again, proved pointless), lots of sleepless nights and many phone calls to my mom, God bless her, we decided they had Whooping Cough, aka, Pertusis! Whoa! Where did this come from? The Drs wouldn't support this theory of mine because "he had the vaccine, so surely it can't be that"! Well, in my research (www.whoopingcough.net) i discovered there is a rise in Whooping cough cases between the ages of 11-14 due to the vaccine losing it's affects. Now, if they had exposure every few yrs, they would be able to build up immnuty and keep strong, but thats another topic for another day. That's why Ryan came down with it and Caitlyn did because she hasn't had the vaccine (again another topic for another day). Aaron and Ethan didn't come down with the full blown illness but have a cold and bad cough. With Pertussis, you start coughing and go into a violent fit, often losing your breathe completely, turning shades of blue and purple, eyes bulging, and finally vomitting before you can finally catch a breathe again. It's really quite scary! They have been on antibiotics and are doing MUCH better, even though the Drs insist the antibiotics don't kill this bacteria. I truly don't understand Drs. Ryan got better over 6 weeks, and after missing much school. But he started to have these breathing attacks in the middle of the night. All of a sudden he would wake gasping for air! It is a horrifying sight and sound to hear, let alone be woken by in the middle of the night! This would last from 30 seconds to 2-3 minutes! It continued for a week or so and I took him in again in hopes they could tell us what was happening. She didn't give me much hope of a diagnosis but sent us to a Pediatric Pulminologist. I won't bore you with all the details, as it was quite an ordeal-par for the course in SG. Anyway, turns out he has something called Spasmodic Croup, characterized by just that, the throat spasming starting and stopping at any time. Scary! It can often be triggered by an allergy as well as an illness. We had him tested and he is severely allergic to dust mites! Now he is on a low dose corticosteroid for 3 months to keep this from happening. We need to find a Dr in the states in quick order to get him updated and continued support for this. So there you have it. This is why I haven't posted much lately, our house has been sleepless most nights and we are exhausted! Good news is, the children are on thier way to being healthy again, and, God Is Still On The Throne!