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General health

Asthma, worries and questions

9 replies

Angeliz · 21/01/2004 16:36

hello all, i've a feeling this wil be a long one.
A bit of history is:
When dd was a year old she had a cold and i went to g.p and he said ",she may or may not have asthma but don't worry about it", and gave me an inhaler to use if needed. It was not needed but i have obviously kept it.
About a year later dd had an ear and throat infection and a different g.p prescribed antibiotics and then told me to give her the inhaler 4 times a day for three months. i questioned and asked why but she was basically rude and told me to do it! I was very unhappy that reasons weren't given and took her for a second opinion the next day. At that apointment, they took her oxygen levels, took alot of time listening to her chest and said there was no indication of asthma but explained how the pump would help open her airways if she needed.I was pleased i'd got some answers and happy to have the pump incase! Lots of very good info and time to answer my questions.
DD has a cold now and i checked the pump the other night and noticed it was out of date so went to see another g.p today! I told her the history and said that i knew i had it incase i needed it and should i have another one? She asked lots of questions again and said that i wouldn't need it as dd didn't seem to be presenting symptoms. (she has a cough and cold at the mo).
Anyway, i am just worrying that what if after all this time she needs it one night?
I know it sounds ridiculous after all my moaning! If dd has asthma i have no problem accepting that, i don't think she has but now can't get the word and it's implications out of my head!
A friend of mine died after an asthma attack in Greece and my sister has always had bad asthma and wheezes adter walking up the stairs !I know it's an awful thing!
I don't really know what replies i'm expecting, just interested in peoples views on asthma and the diagnosis of it and stuff!
It kept me awake last night worrying and now i should be happy i still feel anxious!
GOD, will i ever stop worrying?

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nutcracker · 21/01/2004 16:50

Sorry you are so worried. In my opinion even if she only needs to use the inhaler once a year you should still have one in just in case. My dd2 is 4 and was diagnosed as asthmatic at 14mths old. I had been trying to get her disgnosed since she was 4 mths old. She constantly had a cough and would cough until she bought up the phlegm on her chest. My daft doctor just couldn't get his head around the fact that she might be asthmatic and kept saying "they don't diagnose it until they are 2". We even took her to the local hospital who gave her a chest x-ray and then sent us home. By the time she was 14 mths old i was at my wits end as she was only sleeping about 3 hours a night, due to the coughing and was constantly being sick after a coughing fit. We took her to a larger hospital who immeidiatly diagnosed asthma and gave us the blue inhaler. Our dd improved immeidiatly. Since then she has also needed a steroid inhaler as she developed pnumoina (can't spell it)at 2 yrs and now the right side of her chest is weaker.
I also have ds3 who has been diagnosed as a Happy Wheezer., which is basically a child that wheezes but doesn't have difficulty breathing. I wasn't convinced about this and even less convinced when ds ended up in hospital in december with breathing difficulties. We now have an inhaler for him too but no asthma diagnosis.
Sorry if thats a bit long and rambley.
Did they give you another inhaler ???

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Angeliz · 21/01/2004 17:05

God Nutcracker, your g.p's and mine sound exactly opposite!
It was actually your post yesterday on the "give your kids a hug" thread that kept me awake worrying
The thing is, she has NO symptoms, no wheeze, no shortness of breathe and only has a cough with a general cold! I have never really worried as i thought she doesn't have it but i have the pump anyway!!
Now i don't it's a bit frightening!
I will just monitor this cold and check for any changes in her breathing and so on! I was glad to hear a Doc agree with me today, then started worrying again!
No, they didn't give me another inhaler as she said that dd seemed fine and she is giving no indications of asthma! I agree with this, it's just a bit daunting now thinking, "oh but what if".
I hope you little boy is feeling better now! I find it AMAZING that you begged them to listen and then i've got a Doc telling me to give lots of drugs without explaining!
Thanks for replying

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coppertop · 21/01/2004 17:25

Ds1 (3.6yrs) wasn't formally diagnosed with asthma until his second attack. After the first attack, where the GP sent him straight to the hospital, he recovered relatively quickly after just 2 nebulisers. The doctor said that it was probably asthma and gave us some prednisalone and salbutamol to be used for the next 4 days.
The second attack was a lot more serious. Ds needed constant oxygen, and I lost count of how many nebulisers he eventually needed (probably about 12-14). Only then was he officially diagnosed as asthmatic and given inhalers to be taken regularly.
I think I would keep an inhaler just in case she needs help with her breathing. If she doesn't have asthma she may never need it anyway (touchwood!). HTH

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zebra · 21/01/2004 17:37

The GPs around here (Leicestershire) are known to be asthma happy hand the diagnosis out without much thought. DH had an asthma diagnosis terrible cough, kept him up at night so he lost appetite and couldn't eat for weeks, off work for weeks. DH got given an inhaler, much comment on how it obviously increased what he could puff on the peak flow meter, and helped the cough (a little) so he probably was asthmatic.....

Only it turned out to be a funny type of asthma that went away when another doctor re-diagnosed it as pneumonia and prescribed 3 different types of antibiotic...

SIGH. Just my personal experience. I'm sure it's different when your child cut and dried has life-threatening asthma, but I will always treat any future diagnosis in our family with skepticism.

A friend who is an asthma expert (& sufferer) says that inhalers can, indeed, help with the symptoms of mere chest infections or even pneumonia. He says that "asthma" is such a broad umbrella over chronic respirtatory conditions that it has lost most of its traditional meaning.

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zebra · 21/01/2004 17:39

Well in our area, Nutcracker, I meet a lot of little children who had asthma diagnoses before they were 8 months old!

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tamum · 21/01/2004 17:48

My dd had an asthma attack when she was just under 1 year that required hospitalisation, but has never had another symptom since, and I haven't had any cause for concern (she's now 5). My ds on the other hand has had asthma consistently since babyhood and is now as bad as ever (he's 9). It's very different from a one-off attack in my experience. It certainly wouldn't do any harm for them to let you have an inhaler, but I would try not to worry.

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nutcracker · 21/01/2004 18:03

Sorry my comments on the "give your kids a hug" kept you awake angelize. I can't remember what I said now.

Zebra - My eldest dd was given an inhaler by the same doc that wouldn't diagnose it in dd2, and she definatly didn't have asthma, just a cough and cold. Weird or what

My dd2 doesn't actually have attacks where she literally can't breath but will cough and cough unitl she is sick. A recent attack had her coughing that much that she couldn't even answer me when I asked her if she wanted a drink.

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Angeliz · 21/01/2004 18:36

Don't worry nutcracker, it's cause it was on my mind as i had found the use by date on the inhaler,(even though i had never used it).
The g.p's here seem to be like yours Zebra, at A+E oneday when asked "does she have allergies/asthma?" and i explained the nurse sighed very loudly and said, "A child only has to cough nowadays and they've got asthma"!
I do find all these different stories fascinating and it's a very scary thing to see an asthma attack, that's why i was suprized at my dd's diagnosis in the first place, there were no signs!
As a few of you have said, it wouldn't hurt to have the inhaler but she didn't give me another one! I am going to try and not stress too much about it! I'll check back later for more stories.

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Cha · 22/01/2004 15:15

My ds has been given an inhaler aged 4 months. I have asthma, my mum did and so did dp when he was younger. I was still surprised when the gp said he might benefit from it - he has had a cough for weeks but seems pretty well otherwise (apart from copious amounts of snot) and never has a temperature. How my gp described the definition of asthma did help however. She said that anyone could, given the right triggers, have an asthmatic attack. It is just that some people's threshold is lower than others. And this threshold can get higher as the child grows older (the 'growing out of it' factor) whilst others' still remain susceptible. Like me.
Still, I do feel rather reluctant to pump my little baby full of the blue one (can never remember all their scientific names...) so only do it if he seems exceptionally wheezy.

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