6 March 2008
Hey kids! It’s another asthma flare up!
Posted by Toner under: Life and Family; asthma .
I don’t know what it is this year, but, since November, our son Zach’s asthma has been like on overdrive. What makes it tough is he doesn’t wheeze or anything, he just gets this annoying, dry cough. It’s called a non-productive cough, because unlike the good kind of coughs, that sound like stuff is moving around in your lungs, this cough is just an annoyance. It’s not really doing anything.
The really bad thing is, this gets worse at night, and in the past, there’s been nights where he’s literally unable to sleep through it, which, I don’t know if you’ve ever been around a toddler who has been awake for 48 hours, but, it’s pretty awful…
He’s been going to an allergist since November, and he’s on a flare up plan, and has the usual regiment of inhalers, nebulizers, rescue meds, etc, but it still seems like we spend a lot of time with him sick… If all goes as it usually does, tonight will probably be an all-niter, his pattern usually goes like this:
1st day- teeny-tiniest runny nose and literally two sneezes.
2nd day- Cough in the daytime, but, then he surprises us and sleeps through the night.
3rd day- Seems fine during the day, but, about 2 hours into sleep, will start coughing. Not bad, usually able to sleep through the night and go several minutes, even hours between bouts of coughing.
4th day [Where we are today]- The day can be okay, or mild coughing… Hell will have no fury at night though.
5th Day- Cough gets loose and he’ll be able to sleep a little.
6th Day- Cough gets really loose and he’ll be able to nap and sleep again.
Week to ten days off where he’s okay.
Start over rinse and repeat…
We’ve begun taking some actions around the house. Got a few air purifiers, a HEPA vacuum, covers for the beds and pillows, a humidifier, we now keep the cats out of the bedroom…
During one flare up his allergist mentioned that his nasal tissues looked “really allergic” so I think it’s caused by something he’s allergic to, though unfortunately, we had him tested for allergies, and he didn’t test positive to anything, which we hear is very common in young children. The tests won’t show results until they are a little older… So, I’m not sure if we should get rid of the cats or not, since, there’s a chance they are not the problem (though I have a hunch they are.). Either that or he’s just been picking up every virus at school and they keep settling in his lungs which is possible too…
Tonight, I’m hoping won’t be as bad as some of the past “bad nights” have been, since we’ve switched him from Pro Air in a spacer to Xopenex in a nebulizer which seems to help him a bit more. The Pro Air was always blocked, never sounded like anything was coming out, and we always felt like he wasn’t getting anything.
Also, our family doctor mentioned we should get some codeine for the nights when it’s like 3am and he’s still unable to sleep, so at least we can maybe shut off the part of the brain that’s coughing and he can get a few hours rest. So we have that on hand now for emergencies. Since it’s a non productive cough, it seems it’s okay to surpress it. At least for a few hours. Our allergist agreed it was okay as a last hope measure.
I’m actually thinking of maybe switching him from Flovent to Pulmicort to just because I have no faith in spacers, though Pulmicort seems to have loads of nasty side effects.
Which, by the way makes this all more fun since ten minutes of asthma research online will show you loads of stuff about how asthma meds can make you worse… cause all sorts of problems… that this med doesn’t really work, or that med doesn’t work, etc…
Oh well, I guess we’ll see how tonight goes, it will be our first flare-up night with the Xopenex so, hopefully it will be a little better than things have in the past.
If anyone has been through similar experiences would love to hear your stories.
Technorati Tags: asthma, dry cough, non-productive cough, toddler, allergist, flare up plan, inhalers, nebulizers, rescue meds, air purifiers, HEPA vacuum, tested for allergies, Pro Air, Xopenex, codeine, Flovent, Pulmicort
