The mystery of Laura (a medical report)

I don't have any pictures to post of Laura, because since January 13th, she has felt miserable. I'm just going to start from the beginning and list everything we have done.

Beginning the weekend of Jan. 12th Laura started to feel bad, with sinus problems, chest pain and shortness of breath. We've been trying to figure this whole thing out now for about a month.

Mon. 1/14--Pediatrician (said she had a sinus infection, put her on Augmentin and Prednisone and  referred to asthma/ allergist)
Wed. 1/16--Asthma/Allergist (they did allergy testing with no reaction to anything and said breathing was at 100%--referred us to a Pulmonologist)
Thurs. 1/17--Pain in chest was at about an "8," very hard to breath. Had a chest X-ray (it was normal)
Frid. 1/18--Pulmonologist---said her lungs sounded course, and that he heard irregular heart beats and missing beats. Gave her Percocet for pain. We immediately went to the Pediatric Cardiologist. They did an EKG and an ECHO and said everything was normal.  Cardiologist said maybe it was a GI problem.

Meanwhile that weekend, Laura continued to be in a lot of pain. Nothing could relieve the chest pain, but nothing that she could figure out was really causing her chest pain. It wasn't pain on the outside of her chest but from within. Very hard to explain. And shortness of breath usually accompanied her pain.

She was given percocet to help with the pain, and even an ambien to help her rest. She was very restless and couldn't get comfortable enough to sleep.

Mon. 1/21--Our Cardiologist called and said if she wasn't any better he recommended going to the ER. So we did. They did blood work and another Chest XRAY. Everything came back normal. They put her on Prilosec for possible GI problems.

During this next week, Laura tried to go to school. The dr's even said it could just be a virus. Sometimes Laura's pain would get down to a "4," but then usually after trying to go to school the pain would be right back up to a "7" or "8" again.  Laura missed several days of school even this second week. We were googling everything we could think of and had no idea what to do or what could be wrong.


Monday 1/28--- I insisted that we see our Pediatrician again. She agreed that we needed to keep looking for some answers and agreed that we needed to have a Chest CT scan with Contrast to rule out a possible blood clot in Laura's lungs.
Tues 1/29--Chest CT scan with contrast (came back normal)

After this our Pediatrician thought we should go see a Gastro doctor.
Mon 2/4---Pediatric GI...we talked with this dr at length and he really didn't seem to think it was gastro related. Nothing added up. She wasn't having any problems eating etc. But he was determined to help us. He mentioned doing an endoscopy, but didn't want that to be the only test we did. He wanted to work together with a Pediatric Pulmonologist and do an endoscopy and a bronchoscopy at the same time. So, he referred us to another pulmonologist.
Wed. 2/6---Pediatric Pulmonologist appt. They put her in a body box and did all kinds of breathing tests on Laura. This was the most helpful appt. We found out that she had many asthma qualities. The dr treated her fairly aggressively for asthma and said if she wasn't having chest pain he would just see her back in  6 weeks. But, since she was having chest pain, he thought a bronchoscopy along with an endoscopy would be justified.

The asthma meds really helped Laura right off the bat. We thought this might be the answer. But, she just pretty much plateaued and didn't continue to get better, so we decided to do the procedures recommended.

Wed. 2/13--Endoscopy and Bronchoscopy.

Laura had 3 abnormalities in her bronchial tube.
Laura has Tracheal Bronchus in her right upper lobe, which means that her bronchi is shaped a little differently that normal. Where most bronchial tubes branch off downwards, Laura's makes a U-turn upwards. Also inside her right bronchi, there are supposed to be 2 little channels. She has 3 little channels. (hers is formed like a Pigs bronchi)  Also, they found some mucus inside her bronchi, which they are doing a biopsy on the see if there is any bacteria in the mucus.

So, the way her bronchial tubes are shaped could definitely explain her asthma. We always thought she had exercise induced asthma, but it would make sense if it were more than that. Also the mucus inside could explain the chest pain.

As far as her esophagus, the dr said it looked great, but posed a few questions. The middle part of her esophagus was not round inside, it had a little indentation in the left side. Based on Laura's history with her heart procedure and the fact that she does have a device holding the hole together, the dr wanted to make sure that nothing was pushing on Laura's esophagus from the outside. Our GI doctor was going to talk with our Cardiologist further.

This is as far as we have gotten at this point. It has surely been a crazy month. Poor Laura has been in a lot of pain, and I am truly exhausted, mentally and physically. Ava has been a little trooper and has been to every single appointment with us except for her endoscopy and bronchoscopy. Craig has had a work schedule where he has had no way to take off and help me. Craig's mom and dad came the first weekend in Feb., and were able to help me with Ava for the GI appt. Christine actually stayed home from school to take care of Ava(don't tell anyone!) the day of Laura's outpatient surgery because we had to leave the house at 4:30 am. We joke and say that Ava probably thinks all we do is spend time at doctor's offices!! She really is good though!!

We are still waiting on answers, but I feel like we are finally getting somewhere. It's so hard when you know your child hurts, but no one can give you any answers. But I know to listen to what she's telling me, and just pray that God tells us what to do!!

We are ready for a little "normal!" And Laura is ready to be able to get back to school and enjoy her senior year.