To ask for help from 111 or just wait and see?

[barbiedinosaur]

DS is 4, he has asthma and takes a brown inhaler twice a day as well as his blue inhaler. His triggers are cold weather and any type of cold/cough. He's been on steroid tablets 4 times already this year due to a wheeze and cough.
He's been up all night coughing which is normally how his asthma starts, he's also now got a bit of a temperature and is breathing faster than normal. I've used his inhalers but they aren't making much difference. I'm still quite new to all this asthma stuff with him so I'm not sure if I need to get him seen or if it's probably just a viral bug that's making him wheezy so they won't be able to do anything anyway.

Any experienced asthma mums around that would know what the best thing to do is?

Please call.
He may be fine but it really isn’t worth the risk of waiting.

I would always seek medical attention for an asthmatic whose inhalers aren't doing the trick.

Call 111 please, asthma is not to be underestimated.

Thanks all. I'm currently on hold to 111. I just wasn't sure if they would take it seriously as he has a temperature as well, so I thought they may just say it's something viral and not see him

I'd call It's a good idea to get a dr to listen to his chest. I'm sure it will just be wheezy from the virus but get on the radar and get some advice.

With asthma I'd advise getting a pulse oximeter. Not expensive and give a good idea of oxygen levels.

Good luck — hope you can get some help and advice soon. It's horrible watching someone you love struggling to breathe.

Please call. It being a virus is no reason no to as a virus can significantly effect even well controlled asthma.

My son has had stable asthma for about 10 years but was hospitalised needing oxygen recently due to a virus so always be cautious with breathing and asthma.

Just got off the phone, they are getting someone to call me back within 20 minutes as they want him seen within an hour. It will probs be longer than that though as I know how busy they are!

idiotfacelicker exactly, and as well as the more immediate dangers, there's also the permanent lung damage that can result from falling to control ongoing wheeze and continuous or repeated low-level inflammation. The ideal is aggressive symptom control for best short-term and long-term outcome.

@JarByTheDoor what would aggressive symptom control be? I feel like there isn't much more they can give him at the moment as he's on the max dose of his brown inhaler and they said they don't want to keep giving the steroid tablets as he's had them so much already

I'm not an expert in this but it sounds like aggressive symptom control is what they're already trying to do — preventer, reliever, and steroid tablets as much as is safe, and making sure he's assessed ASAP when you report he's having asthma symptoms from an infection. What it really means is not just accepting that asthmatic kids will wheeze sometimes, but instead pushing to reduce symptoms as much as possible, because they're not harmless.

I don't mean to make you worry that a couple of days of wheezing is setting him up for lifelong lung damage BTW, because it's not, instead I mean to reassure you that responding to uncontrollable asthma symptoms in an asthmatic child by seeking medical attention is exactly the right thing to do for both his short-term and long-term health.

@JarByTheDoor thank you, we did actually see a really good dr a couple of weeks ago who said his normal dr needs to try and work with us to get it under control to stop any damage being done whilst he's so young. The problem is getting an appt with the asthma nurse, they've made him one but it's for three months time as that's the earliest they have. We could do with him seeing her now so we can get a good plan in place

Since my sons hospitalisation we keep a finger oximeter in the house. Worthwhile if someone in the family has breathing issues.

Drops in blood oxygen are not always very obvious (eg loud wheezing etc) it can creep up slowly.

I guess you could try calling the practice tomorrow, explain he's bad again, and ask them if there's any way at all to see the asthma nurse sooner… dunno if it'd make any difference tho. I hope you get some joy with 111 today.

@JarByTheDoor thanks, we're sat in a&e now as that's where the nurse at 111 sent us. Hoping we won't be here for hours and that they may be able to help just get it under control until we can see the asthma nurse

Glad you’re being seen, I would have said A&E as that’s always where we’ve ended up with similar, and A&E have always said to come straight to them rather than GP - if his inhalers aren’t working, he may need a nebuliser or oxygen to help. The fact that he has a temperature/viral infection has no bearing on whether he needs help with breathing. Be warned that they are unlikely to let you home until he can go 4 hours without inhalers comfortably, so you prob will be there at least 4 hours after being seen.
There’s lots more they can do to get his asthma under control, like stronger steroid inhalers daily (instead of the brown one), and montelukast tablets which are supposed to work well.