Dd3 (3 years old) asthma attack yesterday and taken to hospital in ambulance

[CheeseandGherkins]

Dd3 is 3.11 and has asthma. Yesterday we took her to the gp as she had been coughing a lot during the night, worsened during the morning, was breathing quickly, wheezing and working harder to breathe.

Her sats were 89-91 when we got there and she was pale and still had the other symptoms. The nurse gave her oxygen and 20 mg of prednisolone and she fell asleep. She had already called an ambulance and they took us to a&e. In the ambulance they gave her calpol as her temp was up and nebuliser her with an oxygen driven one as her sats were around 89 again. As soon as they put it on, her sats went up.

We were in a&e for a few hours whilst they monitored her, no oxygen at first and she went right back down to 88. They started oxygen up and she went to 100. Then they took it away and she dropped again. Dr came in and nebulised her again. I remember one of the medicines in it was albuterol but can't remember the other as he terrified us by saying if the next one didn't work they would have to use something stronger and ventilate her...

After that lot her sats stayed at around 96 for a little while before dropping again to 93, but she was up and down, never staying either low or high.

Saw a different dr who had a look at her and then we were sent up to the children's ward for them to assess her as her sats weren't staying up.

She was 93 again in the ward, her resp rate was consistently 50-55, mild subcostal recession (same all day and was noted in the ambulance too), heartrate was around 150 but she was ok in herself and was singing along to frozen in a&e!

The paed we saw said she didn't need to stay in but could if we were worried so we decided to bring her home and we have open access for 24 hours. We have been given 2 more days of 20 mg of pred and to give her blue inhaler 10 puffs every 4 hours day and night.

This morning her breathing is 54 breaths a min, coughing a bit, but is up and playing. She has been eating a little and drinking well. It was so scary though and still is, not knowing at what point we should go back to either the dr or hospital.

She had almost exactly the same happen in October although that time she was lethargic and not getting out of the bed in hospital at all, sleeping most of the time and not eating or drinking. We were also taken in an ambulance that time too.

Does anyone have any advice? Also, any idea what we can do long term? She is taking 100mg of clenil in the morning and evening and has been since October but nothing else. We have been told to make an appointment to get a proper asthma plan sorted but I think that should be when she is well?

Sorry for the massive post. I don't think I've forgotten anything but probably did.

[Idefix]

I hope today has been better Cheese and your dd has started to improve.

[swearbyit]

We've had similar experiences with DS, now 6, but started with asthma aged 4. He now takes montelukast in the evening and seratide 50 (purple inhaler) morning and night and is hugely improved. He does still suffer with croup, but has only had one asthma attack in the past 2 years, having previously had 4 scary hospital admissions when he was in the HDU, on a ventilator and with intravenous steroids. I hope your DD makes a fast recovery and that you get a decent asthma management plan in place soon.