UPDATE! Son diagnosed with Asthma

[dplusm2004]

We had to take my son to the emergency room yet again last night and received some disturbing news. If you’re not familiar with the original post… I have pasted it below. The emergency physician that we saw last night just happened to be a pulmonologist. The doctor told me that the cough that Chase has had for the past four months is not real and that it is all in his head… sort of like a tick. He explained that Chase was not doing this on purpose, but that “it’s not a real cough”! The doctor based this diagnose on the fact that Chase does not cough once he has fallen asleep, that his lungs did not seem to be in distress during the attacks and his oxygen level was at 98.

The doctor also told me that the pneumonia that took place in June of last year, as well as the Croup that followed every two weeks for four months was probably real and that it “trained his brain”, if you will, to cough???????
Just as an update… since my last post things have gotten progressively worse. Chase’s doctor has confined him to home because every time he walks out the door, he has these sever coughing attacks. He does cough at home but nowhere near the severity as when he goes outside or to ANY public place.

My wife and I are just exhausted and confused. If this was a psychological problem (or whatever), why do the severe attacks only happen only when he goes outside or to a public place. I will not lie, the thought of this being in his head has crossed my mind before. So I try all the time to distract him by playing a game with him, watching a good movie, etc… but the cough is still there. I just don’t understand all of this!

Anyway, I think I just need to vent. Thanks in advance for any posts…. My wife and I could really use some encouragement or good news right now!




*********ORIGINAL POST****************

In August of last year, my 10 year old son developed pneumonia.  From that day on, a severe cough would show itself about every two weeks. We would take him to the doctor and would be told; it’s the croup, it’s the croup and my son would be prescribed prednisone.  This went on until February of this year,  when my wife and I asked the doctor to check for some other problem… he diagnosed him with asthma and acid-reflux.  He was placed on two inhalers.. (Qvar 80mcg & ProAir HFA), as well as zantac 150mg.

Since the time that my son was placed on this medicine, he has begun to have constant coughing attacks. He has been taken by ambulance from school twice in the past ten days because he could not stop coughing long enough to catch his breath. Once he received breathing treatments both in the ambulance and at the hospital, everything was fine. It is getting to the point that we cannot take the child out of the house… my wife is actually on the way to the school right now because of another attack.

Is it possible that my son was misdiagnosed and this is some type of other infection or even a disease?
Is it possible that the inhalers or Zantac is actually causing this mess?
Could it even be a physcosomatic problem?

We are very displeased with my sons physician.. he just does not take the time with our children the way he used to and almost brushes off any of our concerns. Having said that, we are limited in our choices because our children are on Medicaid. Maybe we need to see an ENT and just pay for it out of pocket??? Anyway, thanks in advance for any responses. My wife and I are worried sick about our son and just do now know what to do at this point.

[hassan25]

Hi
i have been through both the situations. i am not a doctor so i will give you advice from my experiences.

There are different kinds of asthmas. I had it from age of 5 till 13; it ended when i gained hight so i hope same with your son. My chin started to itch before I use to get the attack .
ADVICE: Inhaler helps but one thing that really helps specially in my case was patting on the back. when ever I had asthma attack my teacher or my parents turned me over on my belly and rhythmically patted my back (Advice from doctor, his son had Asthma) which subsided the attack before i reached the hospital but I was still treated with steroids and other medicines at the hospital.

Now for the acid reflex.
I recently got that problem. It’s due to a germ in our digestive system. Some people have it. my father, me and my brother have it. What happens in this case is due to this germ during digestion especially heavy stuff (fried or stuff which is hard to digest) produces extra acid. If you lay down or in a body position where your stomach is over your head (stomach up and head down). what it does is your acid comes to your throat and starts to damage it. I think your son is getting cough due to that reason. I still get it if I sleep right after I eat.

ADVICE: in this case I try to avoid eating heavy stuff specially fried and if I do I don’t sleep quickly after I eat. For example I eat at 6 or 7 and sleep at 10 and walk in the middle to digest the food.
        My doctor has this problem too. He says is not a big problem but if you don’t take care of it, it can end up in throat cancer because of excessive coughing.
MEDICINE: he gave me zertec for the throat and zantec or any acid reflex medicine for the acid reflex.
          He said keep taking zertec everyday and take zantec for two days (1 each everyday). But then stop taking zanted and take it only when ever you have acid reflex problem (even slightest acid reflex problem).
         Now I dont have this problem of coughing. Only rarely when I dont take the precautions.


Result:
         So for asthma, he needs to grow out of it. But still you can use precautions. Like if he has allergies pollen or dust. Stay away from them. Try to stay away from eshausting games. Try to not to get cold (all the stuff related).And definitly avoiding acid reflex. Because I think main thing that give your asthma is excessive coughing from acid reflex.


I had asthma from 5 to 13
Acid reflex when I was 23

I am 25 now so I hope my experience helped.

any question
email: ***@****

[ivory67]

HI there, I don't know how much help I can be to you but I just wanted to say that I know how stressful it can be to have a child that is sick. To go into great detail would take all night but very basically my oldest child had severe stomach pains for 2 years. We were told by friends that it was probably in her head or that she was stressed. The doctors told us it was abdominal migraines etc. I felt that I was beating my head against the wall. At times I thought that maybe they were right and but I knew in my gut that they were wrong. As it turns out she had emergency surgery on her appendix. The nurses told me it was probably chronic appendicitis all along and most doctors do not recognize it until it becomes acute and needs removal. She no longer has pain.  My other daughter went through chest pain and palpitations. After running all the tests on her heart the doctor looked at her and said her heart was fine and not to worry. They said she had anxiety. They later realized she was having really bad allergies that were causing it. Anyhow, sorry to go on but I really want you to know that we have been through these same sort of stresses with doctors and really believing that there is something going on and not being able to pin point it.  You start to second guess yourself and your child because you feel crazy. I do strongly believe in a parents instict. I think if you listen to your child and the instict that you have as a parent it will point you in the right direction and from there you just keep looking for answers. Good luck.