Winter 2013-2014 Pneumonia

James has had a fairly healthy winter. Unfortunately a few weeks ago he came down with pneumonia. After 2 days of fatigue, fever and nebulizer treatments I took him in to the doctor. I honestly thought he was going to be admitted to the hospital, but he lucked out. His O2 sats were a little low at 93% but he was holding steady there. We increased his nebulizer treatments, re-started his asthma medications, started an antibiotic and a steroid. After 3 more days he finally was feeling better. We were fortunate enough to use Sanford's new Same Day in which you get to see your own physician on the day you call. I don't doubt other physicians but when it comes to James it really helps to streamline his care when we see his own physician. Normally I think most physicians would've asked for and x-ray and maybe labs but our pediatrician decided that no matter what the x-ray would've shown he was going to treat it aggressively anyway. James has a poor history of doing a very good job of compensating during illnesses. Which is good, but unfortunately at some point he can't compensate anymore and that's when things go south very quickly. We went for a follow-up a week after and the pneumonia was gone, but unfortunately his O2 sats were still only at 92%. We did an x-ray (which is not the easiest experience at Sanford SW Peds). The pneumonia is gone for sure but he saw a lot of inflammation which means that James' asthma isn't well controlled. We increased his Pulmicort and go back in a month for another check. At that same check-up we'll be checking James' weight. I think at long last our years of avoiding a G-Tube are over. If James' shows no weight gain by that appointment, it's time for a G-tube. Andy and I have mixed feelings on it, but we'll do anything that James needs.