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Can I just b*tch for a sec?
Nevermind, I'm not really asking. My poor poor baby still has this goddamned cough or cough variant asthma shiit. It was going away a little and now it seems to be on again full force. I'd been avoiding giving him the albuterol inhaler because I gave him one puff too many and it made his behavior as bad as the singulair did. It was an accident that day. I hit the inhaler twice instead of once because I thought the mask came off his face the first time & he didn't get the amount he was supposed to. Within 30 min I knew I F'ed up because he was like a demon.
Anyway, I tried some homeopathic stuff tonight he used to take last year. But he sounds terrible, no one is going to sleep tonight, I feel awful for him because there is pretty much nothing to do for him aside from these steroids he has awful behavioral issues with/from. I almost want to wake him just to hug the coughing out of him. To make matters worse, I took him to a class this morning where everyone was giving me the side-eye for bringing my "sick" kid near theirs. I felt like screaming "HE HAS SOME KIND OF FOFFING ASTHMA A-HOLES!!"
Why won't it just go away already??
Re: Can I just b*tch for a sec?
Frustrating is an understatement. The sheer lack of any direction really with it is amazing. With kids this age and medical companies peddling their wares to docs like snake oil salesmen, everything is just trial and error. You want to trust the doctors because they're FOFFING doctors and they have good reputations but all theyre doing is peddling the shiit they bought. They don't know what to do half the time. Then you're paying a $50 copayment to basically hear, "I'm not really sure....try this". No, I am sorry I don't want to give my kid some new drug that really works for some but comes with a laundry list of possible side effects that haven't been studied in the long term.
And no one seems to really care. I know it's not 1950 but no follow-up like "Hey- I gave you like 10 prescriptions for your kid. How's he doing? Can you come in with him just so we can check him out again? See if there are any changes?" nope. Deafening silence.
Thanks. Will check that out.
Winged- ped, allergist, pulmonologist. The pulmonologist was the worst. Supposedly he's the guy to see here. He seemed to have no patience for kids and he's a pediatric pulmonologist. E was running around his office and he just looked annoyed. Talked so fast, handed me a bunch of scrips and he didn't even listen to him or anything. Just took my word that he has a cough that never goes away all winter then gave me meds. It was a total WTF.
TSD, I had a friend go through a similar experience with her 2 year old. Here's an email she sent around that may or may not help. If you want me to put you in touch with her, let me know.
hi mommy friends-it's been an interesting few days and i wanted to share some learnings in case this should prove useful for you one day (or right now!)...many of you have heard me complain about nick having a chronic cough -- he literally coughed for 8+ weeks, mostly but not exclusively at night, last winter and again this fall. about a week ago, it got worse with a cold and i literally wanted to rip my hair out, it was driving us totally crazy. i must have taken him to the doctor a dozen times, his chest was always clear (ie, no pneumonia or bronchitis, etc.) but the cough would not go away. the dr would just tell us it's post-nasal drip. we tried saline, elevating his head while sleeping, humidifier, honey before bed, and a few other asinine things that did not help. finally last week we had bloodwork and a chest xray done to make sure we weren't missing something horrible. all the test results were perfectly clear so still no answer re the cough. then someone suggested that it might be a dust allergy. i thought this sounded crazy but i went on an insane anti-dust campaign and literally overnight, nick's cough basically disappeared!! turns out that kids have very sensitive nasal and breathing passages, and the increased time indoors during the fall/winter can trigger allergies or sensitivities. here are a few things i did that i think have (collectively) made a difference:- get rid of all stuffed animals / fabric toys, they collect dust (at least remove them from the bedroom)- vacuum daily, including sofas / fabric furniture and under furniture- change/wash all bedding, including bedskirts, baby blankets, duvet covers, bumpers, sheets, pillowcases, at least once per week (this seems obvious but i will admit i wasn't washing the bedskirt or duvet in their room every week. now i am doing the stuff in their room every 2-3 days)- dust EVERY inch of your crib (i will be honest, i had never done this - i couldn't believe how much dust had accumulated on and in between the bars of the cribs and around the feet of the cribs) and the walls / baseboards around your kids' beds- wash/vacuum/dust curtains/blinds regularly (also collect tons of dust, I was horrified)- wipe down doors (again, not somewhere i really paid much attention to but our doors have grooves that had tons of dust)- consider an air filtration system (anyone have any recommendations? i am looking to get one) perhaps this stuff is totally obvious, routine or not relevant information for you, but keep in mind that even if your kid is not allergic to dust, dust can aggrevate a simple cold/cough.happy dusting!
Mucho likes purple nails and purple cupcakes
TSD, I hope you find an answer soon and E feels better.
Lindsay, that's a lot of cleaning, foff that I think I'd rather listen to my kid cough.
E sounds a lot like copzson as a kid. He had uncontrolled asthma as a kid and we tried everything we could think of and like your E steroids just messed his little body up so badly we hated using them and we refused allergy shots because of the risk of kidney damage and well as growth issues.
We did take him to The Cleveland Clinic on advice of our pediatrician and it was the single best thing we ever did. They completely understood where we were coming from in respect to wanting to keep him off as many drugs as we could, and they were supportive of that. They did was a pulmonary function test and once they did that they were able to come up with exercises that helped expand his lungs which of course would allow more air out. Most asthmatics can get it in they just can't get it out. Also a cool mist vaporizer helped a ton since the mist tends to tamp down allergens (the only draw back is of course having mist). We kept one in his bedroom going at all times. Throat irritation from continuous coughing only makes you want to cough so we would use Sleepy Time tea with a small shot of honey to try and calm his cough as well.
It sucks so hard. For the first 4 years of my E's life he spent every birthday in the hospital with pneumonia. The nurses would bring him birthday cake and he would eat it in his oxygen tent. Just thinking about it makes me cry.
The good news is that (especially boys for some reason) most kids who suffer with asthma as a kid outgrow it around 9-10 and have normal non-asthmatic lives for school and college. The bad news is that studies show that it is most likely to reoccur as they age. Copzson is 26 now and we can tell when he gets a cold that his cough is changing back into an asthma type cough.
Sorry this is so long. Anyway, I totally support the lack of as much medical intervention as possible and I would encourage you to make the trek to a somewhere like TCC for a consult, it was totally worth it.
I hope E has a better day today
As for all the cleaning ideas those are great and we busted our asses to keep dander and dust down, but in the end I can't really say if it helped or not. I am sure it didn't hurt but I didn't see his attacks lessen
I have cough variant asthma. You literally have to vacuum every day and wash pillow cases/pillow covers in the hottest water possible weekly or more. I was young when I was diagnosed, and my parents bought me a new mattress, which my mom also vacuumed at least weekly or more if I got worse. My brother has it, too, and my mom has basically not stopped cleaning since we were diagnosed 20 years ago. The good thing is that my symptoms have improved over time, so I don't cough my face off every time I go to a restaurant or get a cold.
I still keep swiffers and albuterol in my nightstand. Sexy.
For less then ten cents a day, you can feed a hungry child.
Well that would be some fcukkked up karma for my kid to get something where the only way to keep it at bay would be to clean. You know, since that isn't really my forte.
I actually just came from the doc. She prescribed that other thing the lurker posted without me even mentioning it. But all she had in the office to test his breathing before and after was albuterol. I gave it to him already today so of course while it helped, it also turned him into a little a-hole fairly quickly. But it was a limitless easier to take knowing it was the meds. But now it's the other stuff and an oral steroid which will affect behavior just in time for us to have company tomorrow night. happy new year.
Oh and now I have to go back to pulmonologist. A different one because the one I went to was a giant diick.