Home
Log in / Sign Up
    Private Messages   Advanced Search   Rules   New User Guide   FAQ   Advertise   Contact Us  
Forum -> Children's Health
Need some hugs please



Post new topic   Reply to topic View latest: 24h 48h 72h

amother


 

Post Wed, Apr 23 2014, 3:12 am
In real life I'm a really private person so I'm coming here for the hugs.
We called hatzolah on yomtov for the third time in about a month. They should have a frequent flyer program. I went 20+ years without seeing the inside of a working ambulance and this is so stressful! Once was for a very active toddler who after many lucky misses finally split herself open and ended up needed quite a string of stitches. That was pretty scary and painful and sad because now she has a nasty scar ( hopefully it will fade but it's sad when you have a BH perfect baby and then they get all broken up. And now that it happened once I'm even more nervous about it happening again) but that's nothing compared to my other kid who terrifies me because the issues are ongoing, of the allergies/asthma variety which is mighty serious and not so familiar to me. This is the second time she had breathing difficulties as a result of what started as a regular cold (the first time was during a real day so the regular pediatrician dealt with it) they said it was a pretty mild asthma-ish episode but calling hatzolah was the right move because when a kid isn't breathing well you can't be sure on your own if that's all it is. So does this mean we'll likely visit the ER every other time a cold is going around the family?! Plus, she got sent home with rx for prednisolone (nebulizer alone I guess wasn't enough; we'd actually even tried that earlier in the day before deciding that we were worried enough for hatzolah) which besides being nearly impossible to get down her throat in the first place, makes her act crazy. Really crazy. Alternating between sorry for her for feeling that way and sorry for myself for having to deal with it. It's been ONE day and I have had it, it makes her so hyper and moody and tantrummy and hysterical and wild - and that's after world war three to get maybe half the dose in. Again, is this going to be our fate with every cold? Or is it seasonal allergies and we deal with it all spring?? AAAAARRRRGH. Will go to our pediatrician for follow up first thing tomorrow. Sigh.

I feel like a slight wimp because I have friends whose kids have much worse going on. On the other hand, maybe this does make me some kind of special needs parent - the allergies freak me out because they are the kind you could CV die from, and the breathing issues - well, they might tend to be mild but a person needs to breathe! How do you not get eaten alive by anxiety?!
Back to top

amother


 

Post Wed, Apr 23 2014, 5:18 am
Hug Hug
Back to top

e1234




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Apr 23 2014, 5:23 am
hugs but please get your dd checked out for asthma
there is medicine that can be given daily to prevent these episodes.
Back to top

amother


 

Post Wed, Apr 23 2014, 6:34 am
I had a very similar situation with ds. The pediatrician was not helpful and I didn't know what to do. We saw a pediatric pulmonologist and that was literally life-changing.
And here's a hug for going through that difficult experience. We would do anything for our kids and it's so difficult to watch a child struggling to breath.
Back to top

e1234




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Apr 23 2014, 6:36 am
yes I am very lucky that one of the pediatricions that works here is a pulmonologist.

He monitors my son and my son is on singular and a inhaler but boruch hashem that has been helping
Back to top

amother


 

Post Wed, Apr 23 2014, 8:04 am
Hugs. I had similar experience with DD. It is usually only an issue at change of season. Find out who the top pediatric Pulmonologist in your area is and make an appt. The best ones work hand in hand with an allergist, if it's found to be allergy related. Mine has a two month wait time, but everyone I have sent feels it's worth it. (At the end of your first appointment, you schedule the next one, so it isn't a problem.)
With time, you will begin to notice the signs of an attack earlier on and you will be able to "nip things in the bud" without having to call Hatzolah, except in rare instances. Your dd will also become more aware as she gets older.
Back to top

MommytoB




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Apr 23 2014, 9:33 am
Yes it is scary when your child has trouble breathing! You do need a Pulminologist to create an action plan. Knowing what to do will make you feel more confident.

My child wheezes from colds but lungs are clear between colds so dr and I decided not to put dc on daily low dose steroid preventives. To avoid steroids during colds the plan is to start albuterol as soon as the cold starts, before wheezing kicks in. Every three hours even at night for first couple of days. The first two days are always the worst and some colds the wheezing is helped but not a lot during that first day and it's pretty bad by the three hour mark.

However there are other signs too - how they are acting, how rapid breathing is etc. If wheezing is bad on albuterol but dc is acting a plainf normally than that's a good sign. Clingy and retracted breathing (skin sucking in at ribs) with albuterol probably means steroids.

A Pulminologist will help you figure it all out!
Back to top

MaBelleVie




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Apr 23 2014, 9:33 am
Hugs! My allergic child has asthma too. It isn't so scary once you figure out what the triggers are and what your plan will be to manage it. If upper respiratory infections trigger her, that's actually pretty simple. You'll step up her treatment at the first sign of a sniffle and beH she'll stay in the safe zone.
Back to top

amother


 

Post Wed, Apr 23 2014, 11:49 am
Op here, thanks for the support. Anyone know a good pulmonologist in NYC area who accepts the dinkier insurances?

I don't know if the cold thing is so simple because she's had plenty of colds with no asthma. Also both times it came at the end of the cold, when you'd expect it to be getting better but there's a lingering cough...
Back to top

MaBelleVie




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Apr 23 2014, 11:54 am
My child is triggered by respiratory infections too. No, it doesn't always happen, and yes, it often (for my child at least) kicks in at the tail end.

I'm assuming your food allergies are all under control? Sometimes an allergy can have no symptoms other than triggering asthma. My child tested as allergic to a certain food but food challenges showed no reaction. Eventually we realized that the reaction is in fact a bit delayed, and it's asthma.
Back to top

amother


 

Post Wed, Apr 23 2014, 12:03 pm
Pretty sure the food is not an issue, though I guess you can never be too sure... We have a known nut allergy so we keep far away from nuts (had an anaphylaxis on Purim with all the junk going around... NEver again!!!) but have not identified any other allergies.
Back to top

oliveoil




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Apr 23 2014, 2:00 pm
amother wrote:
Also both times it came at the end of the cold, when you'd expect it to be getting better but there's a lingering cough...


This is very very common. Many children with asthma have this - at the end of a regular cold the asthma drags it on for an extra week or two with wheezing and a cough.
Back to top

boysrus




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Apr 23 2014, 11:20 pm
Hug Hug
Back to top

amother


 

Post Wed, Apr 23 2014, 11:40 pm
oliveoil wrote:
This is very very common. Many children with asthma have this - at the end of a regular cold the asthma drags it on for an extra week or two with wheezing and a cough.

Lovely. What do they all do about it?

Our follow up at the pediatrician was a mixed bag... the good news is he said it's mild enough and responding well enough to the albuterol that we can stop the prednisone (which makes her - and therefore us parents - meshuggah in gantzen) He also said because it only happened a couple of times out of a lot of colds, we should not do anything preventive at this point except start nebulizer sooner and more religiously next time. I.e. every time she has a cold look out for the very first signs of wheezing and immediately start doing it 4x a day until she seems all clear. So we only need to rush to the doctor if it somehow gets really bad even with the nebulizer. The first less-good news was that he said these wheezy reactions to cold viruses tend to last a lot longer than acute asthma so we can be doing the albuterol for weeks at a time in these situations. Then in addition to that he sent us for a chest x-ray just in case because her breathing didn't sound the greatest (did you know they put little kids in this awful plastic cage to hold them still for x-rays? Eurgh.) and at first he said it looked OK (I am so happy we go to a dr at a clinic with an on-site x-ray that is computer linked to all their branches...) but as soon as we got home we got a call that actually the more expert radiology person looked it over and found the beginning of pneumonia. B"H they caught it early so now we get some antibiotics and hopefully it all clears up well and fast. But that was sure disconcerting.

Am I a nutcase that I actually feel a little vindicated by the pneumonia diagnosis? When I called Hatzolah on yomtov saying I didn't like the way she was breathing, DH rolled his eyes at me but respected my judgment. Then when he got back from the ER having been told that all she had was really mild wheezing I think he really thought I was being paranoid for continuing to worry. Now that our doctor said she has pneumonia he is good and shaken up too (I was shaken up enough the first time I noticed she wasn't breathing well!) Of course I would rather my baby be in perfect health but the silver lining is that at least now I feel legitimized! Confused
Back to top

MaBelleVie




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Apr 23 2014, 11:44 pm
If this is only the second episode and she does in fact have pneumonia, it's hard to say that there's any sort of pattern indicating something like asthma. But that's up to the specialists to determine. RS!
Back to top

the world's best mom




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Apr 23 2014, 11:48 pm
I had a similar situation with ds. However, he is now on a daily inhaler for preventative purposes because the allergist heard him wheezing even when he wasn't sick at all. It's not fun when a kid isn't breathing well. I hope she feels better really soon.
Back to top

amother


 

Post Thu, Apr 24 2014, 12:25 am
MaBelleVie wrote:
If this is only the second episode and she does in fact have pneumonia, it's hard to say that there's any sort of pattern indicating something like asthma. But that's up to the specialists to determine. RS!
Dr seemed to feel that the wheezing and pneumonia were separate issues, though likely related - like maybe the condition that causes wheezing makes you more susceptible to pneumonia because if air is not flowing as freely as it should then infection is more likely? Or something like this. But he treated it like two separate conditions. Also the wheezing has been going on a couple of days already and the pneumonia is only at the very beginning stage, so early/small that the regular doc couldn't even detect it on the x-ray and only the radiologist considered it a problem. So it still seems likely that we'll see more wheezing even without pneumonia, and maybe if we treat the wheezing promptly enough hopefully we won't get more infections and stuff, or at least not severe enough wheezing to make me call hatzolah at 2AM on yomtov. (though even that they called mild. Looked pretty worrisome to me. Doctor said maybe it improved on the way to the hospital. I like him for not making me look like a hypochondriac the way the rest of them do.)
Back to top

amother


 

Post Thu, Apr 24 2014, 12:30 am
I use:
Dr. Maria Theresa Santiago
Chief of Pediatric Pulmonology at LIJ
(516) 622-5280

A doctor once recommended:
Dr. Meyer Kattan
Columbia Presbyterian
(212) 305-5122

My friend uses and loves:
Dr. Alfin Vicencio
Chief of Pediatric Pulmonology at Mt. Sinai
(212) 241-7788
Back to top
Page 1 of 1 Recent Topics




Post new topic   Reply to topic    Forum -> Children's Health

Related Topics Replies Last Post
More hugs than usual tonight?
by amother
10 Wed, Feb 21 2024, 6:38 pm View last post
On Hugs.
by amother
37 Wed, Sep 13 2023, 1:01 pm View last post