Prednisone...I love you , no I hate you...eh I'm conflicted

Friday evening started out grim. I arrived home to find my concerned mother and worried husband standing over my feverish, shallow breathing, moaning son.

I took one look and asked my husband to get him dressed. "We're heading to urgent care" I said.

B had a fever earlier that day which my mom said responded well to Tylenol. When I talked to him shortly after he was happily playing and said he felt "good".

To say I was suprised to come home to him like this was an understatement.

We quickly headed off to urgent care where I had hoped we'd be seen immediately because it was clear my son was very sick. But nope. We waited. When we were finally called in to the exam room , we waited some more.

When the doctor finally arrived, he was worth the wait. He was attentive,thorough and had a great bedside manner.

He listened to B's chest for a while then had the nurse come back and test for flu. When those results came back negative he said B most likely has some kind of respiratory virus that has been exascerbated by his allergies and asthma. He said that he's working really hard to breathe because his lungs are inflammed.

I talked to him about my son's "exercise induced" asthma that we'd been prescribed Albuterol for. "Albuterol is great as rescue treatment and opens up the lungs" he said "But it doesn't do anything for the inflammation once it wears off. We need to treat the inflammation."

After talking with him some more and explaining past issues with my son, we talked about the fact that his asthma is not just exercise induced but the chronic type. This both pleased and infuriated me. I was pleased for a diagnosis which explained a lot but wondered why no other doctor had figured this out before.

I'd told them the same things I'd told this doc. I simply don't get it. And it really pisses me off! * End rant before it really begins because that's a whole other blog post for another day

Ahem...

After a dose of tylenol, B quickly rallied and was up and happily downing the green Otter Pop they'd given him. Dr. Awesome told me that B should take a steroid for the next five days to get the inflammation down.

Cue the doom and gloom music

I know what steriods can do. No, I'm not talking 'roid rage. Asthma runs in the family and when steriods have been prescribed long term, I've seen little kids turn into gigantic kids. Of course I'll do what I need to to get my son well...but I'd hate for him to be teased because of medicine induced weight gain. *sigh*

Remembering this,I asked the doctor about side effects and things to be aware of. The first thing he says is it can cause some kids to "wig out". It can also suppress the immune system making him susceptible to other infections (joy!) but many kids have little to no adverse effects.

So I tucked the information away, smiled at my son, who I could tell was feeling tons better, thanked Dr. Awesome and we headed out to go fill our steriod prescription.

A day later, the fever long gone, the breathing returned to normal, the asthma attacks at bay...my 6 year old turned into someone resembling a crack addict

I videotaped (and coincidentally left at home) my son simply because I couldn't believe the craziness.

He'd be fine one second, then run from one side of the room to the next repeatedly.

It was almost liked he'd have spontaneous tics. Yelling randomly. And loudly

A request for hotdogs started with "Mom, can we cook some hotdogs?" to "IWANNACOOKSOMEHOTDOGS, HOTDOGSHOTDOGSYUMMY HOTDOGS" "J stop talking" "YOUWANTAHOTDOG?" commence dancing in place.

And I'm so not kidding.

I'd like to be. But I'm not.

Pray for me. We've got about 3 more days of this stuff.