Skip to main content

Here we go again

It looks as though things are brewing for a second attack in a week, A still has a chesty cough which is getting much more dry and incessant as the day has gone on. Her nose has started streaming again and things just look as though they're headed nowhere good. We've piled in with inhalers, but thinking of getting the Prednisolone started sooner rather than later. It would be about right, for reasons other than A's asthma, today has been one of the saddest I can remember, if you have a moment to step back and appreciate the people that you love in your life then please do.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Prednisolone we hate you...

...yet we really can't do without you! So for the third time in 4 weeks (we had a whole week off!), A is back on Prednisolone after a very nasty flare up over the past few days. I have to be honest, I'm feeling at my wits end wondering where this is going to end, three attacks in four weeks regardless of being on all of the medication we have to hand and each attack worse than the last. This time she hasn't even responded to the Prednisolone quite so quickly. At the moment I genuinely don't understand the term 'well controlled asthma', we have no family history of asthma, (so we are rookies) but as far as I understand it A is on all the medication that she can have at her age, so what more can we do? We know her triggers, we recognize early when her condition is worsening, and yet nothing we do appears to make a difference. Giving Prednisolone is such a double edged sword. When we see her condition worsening the options are; go in early with it to try to pre...
Post a Comment
Read more

Trialling a summer steroid break

So we've taken the plunge, fully supported by A's consultant, to stop the Clenil (brown) inhaler over the summer and just continue with the Montelukast. A is often a lot better during the summer and had a number of colds last year which didn't result in a flare up of her asthma symptoms. The idea is that a break from the steroids can only be a good thing and that the Montelukast with far less side effects and a good track record in treating asthma in children [ Knorr, Barbara, et al. "Montelukast, a leukotriene receptor antagonist, for the treatment of persistent asthma in children aged 2 to 5 years." Pediatrics 108.3 (2001): e48-e48 ] would keep any exacerbations at bay. Feeling a teensy bit concerned today though I must admit, as she has come down with a cold and who knows how effective the Clenil was in preventing any potential attacks during the summer last year. She's sleeping now and we've just been in and given her the blue inhaler as her breathin...
Post a Comment
Read more

Asthma UK post - Personal Asthma Action Plans

When ‘A’ has an asthma attack there’s a sick feeling I get in my stomach that threatens to fill me with blind panic. It doesn’t matter how many times we’ve dealt with the same symptoms, fearing for her safety and remembering how bad things can be is so debilitating, yet it’s at this stage that thinking clearly and getting her the right treatment is essential in preventing an emergency and finding ourselves back in A&E. When she was 18 months old (she's 7 now), A had a number of chest infections and as she came down with another I remember thinking that something wasn’t right. She was coughing constantly and began to sound wheezy. We gave her a couple of puffs of her blue inhaler and the wheezing settled, but later, things got much worse. She was hurling herself around her cot, her breathing sounded terrible and at that point we rushed her into A&E. I remember turning to look at her in the car and thinking that she looked grey. At the hospital it was clear something...
2 comments
Read more