And the answer is.....

bronchomalacia. For more about all the details of that, you can go back and read this previous post. We saw Dr. Doshi today, but in his office this time and not the hospital, thankfully. He said he is almost certain that she has bronchomalacia, and that it is more prominent on the left side in the left bronchioles and lung. He also believes that she is a "combo", meaning that she has virally induced asthma. I can deal with that part of it because most kids do not struggle with this type of asthma much after early childhood, and we know from experience because Spencer was the same way, but is now medication free and experiences no issues at all. The more difficult reality is the bronchomalacia. We know it will go away as she grows, but it's a congenital birth defect, so that's not easy to swallow. Dr. Doshi is still going to complete a bronchoscopy under sedation in the pediatric intensive care unit. Hopefully, this can be done sooner rather than later, but at the worst, the first week of February.

Doctors typically don't tell you something they don't really feel strongly about or that they believe to be true. You must understand that this doctor knows his junk; he's a pediatric lung specialist and he is incredibly confident and very personable, to boot. I do have total faith in him, and I am pleased that he wants to cover all the bases and complete the bronchoscopy just to make an accurate and final diagnosis. Also good news: he will probably take her off all medications except one, and she will no longer be on an inhaled daily steroid. It doesn't help the bronchomalacia in any way, and so that is on its way out the door. We do have to be careful about the sickies....family, friends, crowds, etc. She will not, as we know from recent experience, be able to kick the common cold or worse germs and bugs very easily like other kids because her airways inflame and collapse, and her lungs are unable to clear out the bad stuff. That leads to lung infections and it can get pretty vicious. It also means that she doesn't oxygenate well during those times, and that of course can be very dangerous. When she gets any kind of respiratory virus, she'll sound worse, do worse, and be sick longer than a kid who has normal lungs and airways. Basically, I have to become more of a watchdog than I already am, if you can believe that is possible. She's almost one now, and if we can just make it until she's two, things really settle down at that point. Until then, I'm high strung.

Without a doubt, you can believe that we continue to trust in the Creator, who made Scarlet just the way she is. We believe that He will protect her and keep her, and we just won't let go of that.