The rundown on Brynn

I thought I'd give everyone a little info on what has and is going on with Brynn since people have been wanting to know. First off she's been sick with a cold/sinus infection/tonsilitis/ear infections since November. We moved into a house in Brentwood that was five years old so, the house shouldn't have been the issue although we all questioned it considering we were all a lot sicker than we've ever been since living there.


We took her to see an allergy and asthma doctor in January, where we found out she has asthma and is allergic to mold and cats. Although the allergies weren't severe they were still present and something we needed to watch. We were told to come back in a few months for a recheck.


Brynn had been on antibiotics every week from November to March or three out of four weeks a month, trying to clear up her ear infections. We were sent to see an ENT doctor in February. He recommended surgery to put ear tubes in and take her adenoids out. The surgery went pretty well. The recovery was to only take two days to a week. It took Brynn a month for the fever to break and to feel ok to function. She had horrible neck pain from it and couldn't move her neck.


Since her surgery her ENT doctor has been monitoring her every other week since she hasn't cleared fluid that is in her throat that shouldn't be there. In May he sent us to do a CT scan of her sinuses. It came back abnormal. He wanted her tested for Cystic Fibrosis since the way her sinuses were blocked can be consistant with Cystic Fibrosis. We were sent to do that test. It came back negative. He recommended we do surgery on her sinuses because he was almost positive she has a condition called allergic fungal sinusitis.


In the meantime we were to continue with her, twice daily nasal sprays, asthma medications, and saline nasal rinses until her surgery. He also recommended we go back to the allergist to have her start allergy shots since the fungal sinusitis is caused by an allergy to mold.


We went back to her allergist and they tested her for all the different molds to see which mold she was most allergic to. Here's where things got a little weird. She didn't show any allergy to any of the molds this time around. They did 17 different molds and then did the mold mix shots in her arms twice. Nothing. I kind of think it has something to do wtih all the nasal sprays she's on. At that appointment the allergist said "wow her tonsils are really big" has the ENT mentioned them. I said no and that they've always been big. The allergist wanted to do an immunology labwork up since when a kid is sick for as long as Brynn's been sick there is normally something not right with their immune system.


We got the labwork done and the kids and I headed off on our trip to Humboldt to visit family. I should have known it wouldn't just be relaxing without any doctors. Friday night I was doing the routine of her medicines. She opened her mouth and her tonsils were bright red and touching together along with a cottage cheese looking thing by her uvula. My mom, step dad and I decided to wait until morning to take her to the doctor since she was acting ok. I took her in first thing the next morning, she had strep and tonsilitis.


When we got home I made and appointment with her ENT. He looked her over and said she looks better than he's seen her in months other than her tonsils. He said we'd wait two weeks and look at her again and decide what we are going to do.


We got a phone call from her allergist saying her levels were off on the strep pneumococcal IgG labwork. A bunch of levels under that test were low. Basically the pneumococcal vaccines babies get from two months to a year must not have worked on Brynn or there is an immune problem associated with strep/pneumo. They get four in the first year. The allergist requested we come in and get her a pneumovax vaccination. This one is the adult form of the vaccine. They will have her do the vaccine and then in about a month we'll redo the labwork and see if it worked to make her levels go up, if not then we'll be doing more research.


So a few days ago, Brynn complained she couldn't swallow her food. I looked in it and her tonsils were swollen and one had a white thing in a hole on it. We watched it. It progressively got bigger. I have been researching and we figured out it is tonsil stones. They form in the crypts of the tonsils, they can happen from food getting trapped back there or from post nasal drip (which I'm sure is the cause of hers). It gets in there and turns into bacteria and calcifies. Well it came out yesterday in three pieces. The biggest part was a half inch wide by a half inch long. There were two smaller pieces. It was disgusting. I took pictures so I can show her ENT when we go back.


Today we headed to her allergist for the vaccine for the pnemovax. While we were there, the allergist and I were talking about how it was odd that she was allergic to mold one day and the next she wasn't. I asked could it be since she's been on two different nasal spray antihistamines that we are giving her in a high adult dose. She said it was very possible. Well I had planned to ask about this since it had been bothering so, I didn't give her her nasal spray for a full day. The allergist said we could try it again. The did two shots under the skin, one with mold mix and one with water. She reacted within two minutes of the shot going in. Hmmm.... So she does infact have a moderate allergy to the molds.

The allergist recommended we move forward and do the surgery as it would be best to find out what is in her sinuses, she also recommended that we ask about having her tonsils removed since they are huge. She wants us to come back the week before surgery to have her started on some oral asthma medication for the surgery and she'll send us with a letter for the ENT for IV medications she needs to be on during surgery for her asthma.

So as of right now we head back to her ENT on the first of July for a recheck and discussion. The week of surgery will be a busy one. We go back to the allergist on the Monday before. Her labwork done for the pneumococcal titers on Tuesday. An appointment with the ENT will happen that week and then her pre-op on Thurs or Fri that week. Then surgery is the following Monday.

Brynn has been a trooper through all of this. We just want her to feel better and be done with all this. I'll update as we have more information but, here's so everyone knows what she's been through and going through since there have been a lot of questions lately.