Annie pics! Not letting the rain stop her from the March of Dimes walk!

Annie pics! Enjoying cupcakes at our good-bye NYC party at Gran's farm

Potholes along the way

So Annie's lungs have been adjusting to Chicago. She got a little cold about a week ago that rapidly progressed to something far more severe for her lungs and she is now on some hard core steroids. The side effects can be a bit scary (she hasn't been on them, thankfully, for about a year). So here we are: new city, new docs.....same lungs. Time for Basic Training.

I have been thankful that the docs here have been as compassionate and accessible as our docs in NYC. Everyone is trying their best but the growing pains are certainly there. When you are coming in for a sick visit you see whomever is available. When Annie isn't doing well, we come in nearly every day to check on her o2 levels. Normally, it's just a touching base visit and we move on. Not now. Each doc has different opinions on treatment plans and I found myself on the defensive justifying why I made the treatment decisions that I made. I'm sure no one is 'wrong' but it leaves you unsure and second guessing yourself during a time when there isn't much room for debate.

Emotionally, it's intense. She was so bad on Thursday (bad for Annie is she is wheezing and coughing so badly she is gagging and vomiting) that we decided to put her on a drug that can have substantial side effects. Then I see another doc over the weekend who says she would have tried something first before this steroid. Argh. It is so hard to agree to give her these drugs that can have such dangerous side effects only to be told "Well you could have tried...". That, my friends, is torture.

As always, Annie is our strength. Today she started eating again and we are definitely over the hump. But this road was rough and bumpy. Her new pulmonologist is apparently a rock star and I am definitely looking forward to sitting down with her and putting together a battle plan we can all agree on.