During Quinn’s second and third grade school years, she had what was diagnosed (and sounded just like) “croup.”
This included a barking cough that left our daughter gasping for breath. The cough would NOT stop until we took her to the doctor. The doctors would always announce “croup,” then they would put her on heavy steroids and codeine cough syrup, in addition to her asthma medications. In third grade, one asthma doctor put her on so much codeine cough syrup that she had hallucinations and had to be hospitalized overnight.
That was when we left that doctor and decided to go a different route. We had her tonsils taken out, praying this might solve the problem. It did not. Her croup continued in late third grade and into fourth and fifth grades. She missed weeks of school each year, sometimes totaling over a whole month! In addition, the croup was becoming more frequent, sometimes returning within a week or even a few days between spasms. We were desperate.
What incredible luck that Quinn and Claire, Dr. Wei’s daughter, took dance at the same studio. I built up my nerve and decided to ask her if she would listen to my situation. (I thought she was a pediatrician at the time.) I was thrilled when she not only said “YES” but then told me she was Pediatric ENT.
I described everything to Dr. Wei, but I also stressed that this situation was having a psychological toll on my daughter. She tends to have an anxious nature, and her health had left her terrified that she was going to die. Her poor health was slowly taking over her ability to enjoy life or even feel that her basic need of safety was being met.
Dr. Wei was an instant, miracle working, rock star, a wonder. She said Quinn was not having croup at all and for me to go and get some Prilosec right away. I gave it to her before dinner and brought her to see Dr. Wei a few days later. Quinn was diagnosed with GERD. She had to change her diet, the timing of evening snacks, and take PrilosecTM each evening (she still does).
Quinn is a different child today. She went from having croup-type coughing spasms three to four times per month to just a couple times per year. When she does, it’s always because we have goofed on her diet. She has to eat bland for a day or two and she is back on track. This literally changed my child’s life, and, therefore, it has changed our whole family’s lives.
Doctor after doctor was wrong, even at leading children’s hospitals, emergency rooms and urgent care centers. Often, doctors looked at my husband and I as if we had done something odd, because they just couldn’t figure out why a child so old was still getting croup.
Quinn still has anxious tendencies, but she is not haunted that she is going to die. She is no longer terrified of leaving me, and she doesn’t have nightmares like those of the past. Again, this has transformed her life. As our whole family says: Dr. Wei ROCKS.