Ryan Health Update

We just got back from our follow up appointment at the pediatrician's office. Ryan's ears and lungs are clear and healthy! The doctor did notice that Ryan has had 3 ear infections in 4 months, and apparently the criteria to be referred to a specialist is 3 ear infections in 3 months... so he's just shy. I'm ok with that though since I'm not all that interested in having to deal with tubes. Right now the ear infections don't seem that bad. They don't really bother him all that much, and he loves antibiotics. He just finished a 10 day course today and I think he's going to be bummed. He always makes the "more" sign when we give it to him.

As for his lungs, the doctor told us to give him some preventative puffs on his albuteral inhaler at the first sign of a cold to help keep his airways open. It appears so far that his wheezing is triggered by colds, which is bad cause he has them a lot, but good because it's not an everyday allergy thing. According to the doctor, kids usually outgrow wheezing from colds, so hopefully this is all temporary!

Ryan's 2nd Christmas... Technically

I've finally gotten around to downloading and organizing pictures from Christmas! This year the festivities started at our house for our annual ChristmaKwaNukkahWali SolstEid party. We had to skip hosting the party last year for obvious reasons, but were happy to resume the tradition this year. Our party is a winter holiday celebration with food, music, and decorations representing Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Diwali, Eid, and the Winter Solstice. We try to be all inclusive although admittedly we have no Kwanzaa of Eid food at the party. Maybe next year!


We spent Christmas this year in Austin visiting Ryan's relatives on his dad's side. Ryan had a great time meeting 6 cousins, 2 aunts, 2 uncles, and 2 grandparents! Here we try to get all 7 kids to sit still for a picture:

After opening gifts over several days in Austin, we made it back for one final Christmas celebration at home.

Click here for additional pictures from Christmas and I promise we'll try to take more pictures soon.

When it Rains...

Ryan, Justin and I spent another couple of hours at the pediatrician's office yesterday. Ryan had started wheezing again Thursday night, but not wanting to spend another night at the hospital, we decided to give him a nebulizer treatment and call the doctor in the morning. We arrived at the office at 4:15pm but weren't seen until an hour later. During that time, Ryan decided to run laps around the furniture. After about an hour of running around, he started having a coughing fit. Go figure. Luckily this is when we got to see the doctor. The nurse took his temperature, and low and behold, he had a fever of 102. He wasn't even warm when we brought him in. Turns out in addition to the wheezing, Ryan has another ear infection. The doctor then listened to Ryan's lung and decided he needed a nebulizer treatment. He gave us an inhaler and an antibiotic to clear up his ears and his lungs. Our doctor said it still is too early to diagnose asthma, that it may just be the case of a bad reaction to a bad winter, but that we were probably headed down that path. Ryan will be re-evaluated next week and we'll go from there. We briefly discussed preventative medications like Pulmicort, but he said it was too early and we'll have a better idea in the spring when this nasty weather stops. Keep your fingers crossed!