To not agree with the nurse practiser's view that my DS has asthma and to think a diagnosis should come from a doctor?

[PolkadotCircus]

Soooo my v healthy but skinny boy 9 has had a nasty winter virus that he has had problems shaking off,symptoms involve a cough that won't go away.Loads of other kids and adults have had/got it here.

The same happened last year and our fab doctor gave him temp inhalers to calm his airways down which worked a treat and were never used again.

His grandad is the same(very skinny and some times gets a chest infection in winter it takes a whole to shake off) but still cycling 16 miles a day at 80.

Anyhow dtwin 1 keeping dtwin 2 awake so tried to get an appointment with our fab GP but because he is so fab it is nigh on impossible so was offered an appointment with a nurse which I reluctantly accepted as all I wanted were temp inhalers and ds better ASAP.

Anyhow after a very lengthy appointment when his puff was measured,history looked at,records filled in,weighed etc she finally gave us some inhalers.Puff was poor(errr yes he has a virus and a temp) and we were told to come back for a follow up asthma review.I said but he doesn't have asthma only to be told well this happened last year etc,etc.

So we went to the review puff beyond normal now and very good,virus over so no surprise.Nurse then said as he had asthma she'd like to see him again,keep him in her records,how many inhalers did he have etc,to keep him topped up when tight in the chest etc etc.

I said very firmly he doesn't have asthma and never gets tight in the chest.She then asked if he had eczema or hay fever.He had eczema as a baby and gets a bit sneezy in the summer ahhhh then they are linked so he does have asthma.Me-no he doesn't he just gets a cough he can't shake some winters.
I don't want asthma on his records unnecessarily.We politely agreed to disagree.

So aibu to think a)he doesn't have asthma and b) a diagnosis should come from a doctor.

And if you were being obvious to refusing information to the nurse as you are on here, then I'm not surprised she didn't overwhelm you with everything possible, as it was probably as blatant to her that you wouldn't listen to a word she said.

Technically, although the OP's DS is 9, he's had 2 coughs in 2 years that have required treatment with an inhaler. If the first prescription had been years ago I doubt that an asthma diagnosis would have been mentioned.

Listen very carefully, I shall say this only once.... YOU CAN HAVE ASTHMA WITHOUT BEING WHEEZY!!!!!!

And no Gp should be prescribing a bloody inhaler for a virus, and certainly not without examining your son first.

Fgs. You are going on about not being given info on asthma, then point blank refusing to listen to the many voices of experience on here. Seems the only one you are prepared to listen to is your precious Gp. They aren't infallible you know, and they do misdiagnose on occasion. They can't possibly expect to be experts in every condition known to humanity. The clue is in the name - GENERAL practitioner

Is it it was the last appointment on a Friday so may well have been a duff appointment.I don't know how the NHS works but sorry do know any mother has a right to question something they're not sure about.

Will update but it'll be a few weeks,not going to demand an emergency appointment,will need to book a couple of weeks ahead for non emergency appointments with this gp.

Oh, Polka, you really don't understand illnesses and treatment! Just because an inhaler worked last year does not mean that it is suitable for this year's problem. You might need another type of inhaler or some other sort of medication altogether. You don't get the same virus twice, each one is different even if it appears identical, and if it requires treatment, you need to have a medical professional - of which, a NP is one - assess it and decide on the treatment. Of course, the treatment could be the same, but that doesn't mean you should just automatically use that every time someone has something appears to be the same as something previous. Did you know how much illness and suffering is caused by people self-medicating wrongly or giving meds to others, by asking for repeat prescriptions for things they no longer actually need and therefore either making themselves ill by dosing themselves with stuff that's not necessary or because they need something else now, etc., etc.

You are confusingly and illogically obsessed with 'just' getting these same inhalers, ie just getting stuff that's worked in the past instead of actually getting what isnec. now checked out. Conditions and people change constantly. You really, really need to get over this whole referring to your Ds's health in the past, it has little or no bearing over how he is now and what he needs now. It is also 100% irrelevant what other people's kids are taking for similar problems. Your inability to understand this stuff really worries me.

Inhalers contain steroids. That's powerful stuff, you don't want to be giving him 'just a few puffs' unless needs be. You are too blasé about medication whilst stubbornly resisting accepting diagnosis or a bigger picture, it's really fucked-up.

The nurse can give you this information in a longer appointment than the GP will have available.

I would imagine that your "he doesn't have asthma" attitude, resulted in her not providing you with all the information at the time.

Why do you keep using the word "said" - highly patronising!

BTW, I don't blame the NP for shrugging, because asthma can just start out of the blue. It's tough shit that way. There's no rhyme or reason to it, just a complex and unpredictable mix of so much; genetics, home environment, social environment, exposure to this and that... It just happens. You have to deal with it instead of trying to argue but such and such didn't apply in the past. PAST being the operative word here.

And asthma doesn't have to be lifelong or serious. And you don't have to wheeze.

I think you want to book an appointment with this particular GP because he is cavalier with dishing out inhalers (this is actually a big problem within the NHS) withiut really looking into things or asking questions and you'd prefer that.

yanbu

your questions weren't answered and you are hesitant to have him labelled with very little backup evidence.

your gp is very knowledgeable and has told you about this in the past.

i would go back to gp and check with him.

i would personally go with the person who has the most training and knowledge as possible, not someone following a checklist but with little underlying experience and understanding.

Repeat prescriptions without appointments are for regular medication: doctors can't let patients just ask for anything they've ever been prescribed in the past (if they did we'd have even more problems with antibiotics than we already do!) and with a gap of a year (or even two!) it would be incredibly negligent not to see your son before prescribing! As I understand it, EMIS (or whatever the computer system's called) keeps track of everything prescribed & GPs are able to select items to be held on a repeats list: patients are able to request things on that list without seeing someone, anything else they'll have to see a doctor/NP to get sorted.

The diagnosis of asthma seems to have really pushed your buttons: what is it about it that upsets you so much? I know you've mentioned insurance, but having been reassured that's hugely unlikely to be a problem you still seem very distressed by the idea.

As some of the others have said you need to be prepared for your GP to tell you that your son's care will be managed by the Nurse Practitioner. That's the norm in lots of places. My care has to be managed by a hospital consultant (which is v annoying, esp if I see one of the Prof's minions because they inevitably end up having to go & consult him so everything takes longer & is more complicated than there's any need for it to be) but from time to time I see one of the clinic's nurse practitioners too - usually to ensure I've not suddenly forgotten how to use my inhaler/spacer/peak flow meter - and they're invariably excellent. One of them genuinely got excited about the fact I was on a particular medication & asked lots of questions about it. My excellent GP, who I trust completely, had to do lots of research into it, because she is not an asthma specialist.

You say "Asthma is a lifelong serious condition".

It can be. But also, for many, there are a lot worse medical conditions.
Dont want to underestimate the potential seriousness of asthma, but for many ,probably millions of people, it does not impact on daily living too much.

A lot of people who are diagnosed asthmatics, can go years at a time without symptoms.

Others do put me right, if what I have just written isnt accurate.

This thread has 307 posts. The only person who has said that the lad doesn't have asthma is the OP.

Claude are you the OP?

Off to work now to deal with patients that actually want help.

I have eczema, hayfever/allergies, and had an inhaler (on repeat prescription) as a child for occasional use as I was prone to a cough after winter viruses. Despite this, (plus a family history of respiratory problems) I was never diagnosed with Asthma. General consensus here would dictate that I too have/had Asthma?

Polka I actually think YANBU to want to see a doctor for further clarification. Consulting Dr Google would surely be the least sensible option, given the lack of information that you have been given by the nurse.

Oxford which is why ideally I wanted to see my gp however due to this virus they were snowed under.I took the offer of a nurses' appointment so we could get treatment quicker.

He was very run down and had lost a lot of weight,had had the virus for ages,very dizzy for ages,deathly white and teachers mentioned his lack of concentration. All on records.I thought he couldn't shake the cough because he was run down,waking up at night not helping,vicious circle so wanted inhalers or anything else.Wanted to avoid more anti bs. Was open to anything tough- a tonic,anything.

A tonic - how very woo! Doctors stopped prescribing in the 1950s. Seriously listen to the NP and stop being an arse about it.

My son has had viral asthma a couple of times. One was a cough and the other time unable to breathe both times put down to viral asthma. Its not considered a permanant diagnosis of asthma at all.

Well Claude that put us nurses in our place didn't it. An awful lot if this thread really is about those uppity nurses getting above themselves isn't. How depressing.

Avoid but how was Polka to know that, given the lack of info from the NP?

If this particular nurse had an MSc would that make her knowledgable or will only the label 'doctor' suffice??

I was unaware asthma caused dizziness,weightless,consistent whiteness and poor concentration.As woo as it sounds quite frankly I felt DS needed building up and maybe a mineral tonic if it existed.He'd had one lot of Antibs and wanted to avoid more.Thought more sleep(with cough treated) and building up would help.

My mum is a nurse practitioner in respiratory medicine. She has thirty years of experience in the field and is just as qualified to diagnose and prescribe appropriate medication for asthma (as well as a number of other respiratory conditions) as any GP would be.

Crikey.

Can I just add to the flood of posters wh have given similar examples - my son has asthma. He has only rarely been wheezy, usually in the summer. If he stops taking his brown inhaler he gets a persistent cough. Otherwise he is fine. As long as he keeps taking the brown inhaler.

I think a PhD would be better blubberguts. You could legitimately claim to be doctor then.

Was going to say PhD but didn't want to get above myself what with being all thick and all.

claudedebussy thank you so much for intimating that all nurse specialists are unqualified numpties simply following a check list with no understanding or experience of their speciality.
There I was thinking my 3 years training, 20 years nursing which includes 8 working in my one specialist field, the honours degree specific to my speciality, the hundreds of hours of my own time off I've used studying, the conferences and lectures I've attended, the research I've taken part in, the audit of my outcomes might mean I know what I was doing.
How silly of me- I'm a checklist follower! Thanks for the enlightenment.