Eric has an appointment with a pedi Pulmonologist on Monday and I was just wondering what kinds of tests do Pulmonologist order?
Just want to get an idea of what we are in for.

Maybe an Echo?
Why is he going ..if you already told us I'm sorry to make you repeat....I LOVE his new pic talk about baby blues!!!!

Thanks! Eric does have some VERY blue eyes!
They are able to make me melt instantaneously!

His regular doc set it up because he had some sort of asthma attack the other day that stopped him in his tracks. His breathing has always been funny, but I think he needs an Otolaryngologist instead. I guess we'll see if this guy can help or not.
Thing is his breathing isn't really wheezy. It's almost as though his throat shuts off or something.

Tahts how I feel about Jaydens "squeaking" it doesn't come from his lungs it is his throat too....Sometimes it's like talking to a wall...KWIM You just go along with them cause they get thier minds set at nothing else could be until they test and find out we were right!!!!...what cha gunna do? I wouldn't think they do anything more than a doppler or Echo though????

Sam's ped plumonologist did no tests on him or anything. Basically looked at what all the other tests showed, looked at all the chest x-rays he has had done and then we discussed what he thinks is the reason behind the gurgle. He put us on breathing treatments to reduce the swelling of the airways and scheduled another swallow study to see what he is doing with his food/drinks/saliva. This was the best thing we could have done at it was at a different hospital from the first swallow and they found some interesting things that were missed the first time. Since they found out about the weird muscle in his throat and saw that he was penetrating (not the same as aspriation - gets only to the voice box before it comes back - aspiration is when it gets into the lungs, past the voice box) the wanted to keep the breathing treatments (coughing irritates and swells the airways) and hopefully see some improvement on the gurgly sound.

So if it is the same as ours was, it won't be to bad. Maybe a chest x-ray?? Thats all Sam had done. Maybe he will call in an ENT for you to. It doesn't hurt to ask the dr about it. I hope it goes well! Oh and remember to bring or send your med history to him before hand. I know that the pulmonologist looked at Sam's thourghly as he had a ton of questions about the stuff in it for me. So be prepared with history!

Thanks Sarah!
WOW maybe THIS guy will order a swallow study for Eric. I really thought the GI guy would, but even after me mentioning it, he didn't do it. He actually led me to believe that the UGI he ordered was a swallow study. I was really mad when I found out. Especially considering we were referred to him because of Eric's dysphagia.
I have always wondered what damage if any Eric's reflux has done to his lungs. They can tell from an XRay right?

EEEEE I'm so excited a GI appointment on Friday and a Pulm. appointment on Monday:yahoo:

Hopefully we get somewhere.

As far as Eric records. They are all over the place. Two clinics in VA and 2 in Mich. all in parts KWIM?
I really need to work on getting them all together. But the records in VA are just about useless. They were terrible at keeping records. I had a peak at it just before we moved. Bunch of idiots! UNREAL

Sam's ped plumonologist did no tests on him or anything. Basically looked at what all the other tests showed, looked at all the chest x-rays he has had done and then we discussed what he thinks is the reason behind the gurgle. He put us on breathing treatments to reduce the swelling of the airways and scheduled another swallow study to see what he is doing with his food/drinks/saliva. This was the best thing we could have done at it was at a different hospital from the first swallow and they found some interesting things that were missed the first time. Since they found out about the weird muscle in his throat and saw that he was penetrating (not the same as aspriation - gets only to the voice box before it comes back - aspiration is when it gets into the lungs, past the voice box) the wanted to keep the breathing treatments (coughing irritates and swells the airways) and hopefully see some improvement on the gurgly sound.

So if it is the same as ours was, it won't be to bad. Maybe a chest x-ray?? Thats all Sam had done. Maybe he will call in an ENT for you to. It doesn't hurt to ask the dr about it. I hope it goes well! Oh and remember to bring or send your med history to him before hand. I know that the pulmonologist looked at Sam's thourghly as he had a ton of questions about the stuff in
it for me. So be prepared with history!

That's interesting about Sam's swallow study, Connor had one done last week and it also showed that he was penetrating, I didn't know what it meant though!

Glad I could help out Kim!! Sam's Speech therapist explained it all to me following the study.

Minnie - I would talk to him about it. Our pulm. was more concerned about the gurgly stuff than anything and wanted to see what was actually going on. They did a chest x-ray there, but his lungs were clear (yes they can see the damage from an x-ray), but he wanted to see why he sounded so awful. He suggested the swallow study even though the first results said Sam was normal.

I would really try to get all his med reports together just for your sanity. I have paper copies of all the med reports with the exception to the ones at his normal ped's office. I also have the copies sent to our ped office so they have copies of all the specialist appts we have. It is kind of stinky to have so many laying around at home, but I can find them in a hurry if say his speech therapist has a question about a specialist we saw.