Pediatric allergist/immunology specialist

In 1997 when Larry & I moved back to the area & began visiting churches, we met a sweet couple, Paul & Elizabeth S. at our new church. They were in our Sunday School class & became friends of ours. Over the course of the 7 years that we were at Bethel Bible Church, we stayed in touch with Paul & Elizabeth, even though we were not always in the same classes. It was just a few years before we left the church (when Larry went into full time ministry at another local church) that we began to need Paul's expertise. You see, Paul is a pediatric allergist & immunologist.

When Sarah was a year old, she had pneumonia. Her respiratory & allergy-related health went downhill from there. By the time she was 2, we knew she had asthma and some mild allergies. And so, we made a call to Paul & got into his office to do allergy testing. Sarah's allergies & asthma are both very mild. She's like her mama & grandmother... changes in the weather are the biggest source of grief for her where allergies are concerned. And even now, with her being 4 months shy of turning 8, we still don't really know what triggers her asthma. In all the years of asthma attacks, she's never had one during the light of day. They ALWAYS begin in the middle of the night. They may roll over into the next day, but whatever triggered her always starts during the night. {It isn't her bedding, stuffed animals, etc because she's swapped beds a few times, has had multiple sets of bedding and she swaps out stuffed animals every few months...so who knows!}

Today was our annual check up w/ Dr. Paul. {Note: We don't call him Dr. Paul in the office...I'm just using his first name here for his privacy's sake.} He came in & talked to all of us for a while, joked about Halloween costumes with his nurse and generally shot the breeze. It's always nice to visit w/ him because we don't feel like we're in a DOCTOR's office. It just so happens that a good friend of ours is a doctor. Ya know? Anyway, we visited for a while, then moved onto the real reason we were there. He did an exam of Sarah, asked us lots of questions about her asthma & allergies and gave her a thumbs-up for the year. After a quick flu shot (which I'm praying wasn't a mistake....we've NEVER given her one before), we were out of there with an appointment to come back in a year.

Here's hoping that this coming years is as good as the past year. She had croup in March and has had only 1 or (maybe?) 2 asthma attacks all year. Yahoo! Way to go immune system & good drugs! :)