Brittle Asthma?

[alibobins]

Gp told me this is what my lo has got.

Don't really understand and didn't have much time to discuss.

I knew he had got quite bad asthma but not sure what the difference is.

Gp did say its a rare form of asthma.

Anyone had any experience.

I hope your LO is feeling better soon.

I hadn't heard of the term either.

This is copied from www.netdoctor.co.uk

" When doctors use the term 'brittle asthma' they mean that the asthma can change from being apparently well controlled to being poorly controlled in a short space of time.

This means that the person with asthma may change from feeling relatively well to having quite severe difficulty breathing very rapidly.

People with brittle asthma also tend to be those who have relatively frequent asthma attacks, and in between acute attacks may have ongoing symptoms such as coughing and wheezing which may require quite large doses of medication to keep them under control."

Well that sounds like a perfect description of my ds

I'll have to google it later when kids in bed.

Thanks BS.

Anyone else had any experience of this.

Brittle asthma is when everything goes downhill very quickly.

My dd has/had a viral wheeze, treated as asthma, and she has been referred to as having a brittle condition. This is because she could be perfectly well one minute and sats of 80pc and hooked up to IVs two hours later.

She seems to be growing out of it though, so it is not a permanent condition, necessarily.

My dh has brittle asthma, but I don't really know much about it.

In the 10 years I have known him, his asthma has been well controlled with no serious attacks.

Mt ds2 had brittle asthma until he was about 17yo. As others have said, it's severe, unpredictable asthma which can deteriorate rapidly. Things have moved on a lot since he first became asthmatic (he's 28 now) and there are much better treatments available today. Thankfully, ds is only really bothered nowadays by his asthma if he gets a cold/chest infection. The first document on this page is useful, as indeed is Asthma UK. Asthma

Can't get the link to work.

Thanks for all the advice.

I managed to find some info and to be honest it sounds pretty scary Ds's asthma as always been up and down and is on alot of every day medication and has many courses of abs and steriods

Ds also suffers with anaphylaxis to numerous things which is what some of the info says.

I'm sure the consultant will tell us more when we go.

Asthma UK link - very very useful site, as is their phone line to the asthma nurses. Can't recommend it enough.

I've been an asthmatic (not a brittle asthmatic though) since a very young age, and I do want to echo suedonim and say how well asthma treatments have come on in that time.

I hope the consultant is helpful