Victory!

Two years ago when Anna was hospitalized as an infant with pneumonia, she was put on a daily inhaled medicine that thins the mucus in the lungs so that it can be more easily coughed up. Scared from our experience and wanting only what was best for her, we administered this expensive medicine. After a while I started to wonder if she needed it. Once she was out of the hospital a few months, I never heard her cough at all after her therapy. She didn't seem to have the chronic cough of CF- at least not yet. Why were we giving her a mucus thinner to help her cough if she wasn't coughing?

After researching this medicine a bit I found out that it had never gone through a long-term study. The longest it had been studied in patients that were using it was a year. And- it had never been studied on persons under the age of five. I asked the doctor if we could take her off this medicine. The answer was no- because we were in the middle of cough and cold season and therefore it was not a good time to take her off this medicine, which he felt was a mild medicine and harmless anyway.

I asked again another time if we couldn't take her off this medicine- no was the answer again.

Finally, last week she had another appointment and I was determined that I would again broach the subject of the not-needed medicine. As her appointment approached, I began to have more than my usual anxiety as I played out in my head the conversation I would have about this medicine with her doctor. How would I defend my position? I talked to Steve about it and he pointed out that the doctors and staff are hired by us for their expertise, but we are not bound in any way to follow all of their recommendations. He said that we could just take her off the medicine ourselves, at least for a trial time period, and see how she faired.  I had never thought about doing that. Once I accepted that as a possibility, I felt more in control, but I still wanted the doctor's approval.

So to give a short ending to a long story, I took a deep breath and told the doctor I wanted to take her off the medicine. He looked at me, asked if she were having any respitory issues, and then agreed to take her off the medicine until it may be needed in the future. My thoughts exactly. Just like that.

Victory! A small one, but a victory none the less.