Lung function test

Hi everyone. Hope you're all well

We recently had an appointment at Yorkhill where they did lung function tests on Holly (who's 7). Other than being a little tired the wee one did great and it went rather well.

The respitory cons sent me a copy of the letter which the cons at the local hosp gets and at the top instead of having a diagnosis of ""severe brittle asthma"" which the local cons writes on her letters, she has written ""moderate asthma"" and has stated that the lung function tests show ""a moderate obstruction to the flow of air in her tubes"".

We've to go back to the specialist in 4 months and see our local hospital in four weeks.

I know that different docs use different names for types of asthma but I'm a bit concerned that if they consider her to be improving, they'll start playing about with her meds again. Her last admission was at christmas and while she's not been admitted since, I wouldn't say she was stable enough to bring the meds down as she's still symptomatic on a day to day basis.

On the other hand am I over-reacting and unable to see what this cons is seeing? Maybe too many cooks really do spoil the broth. Opinions wise anyway.

Anne

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One of the issues with true BA (I'm not doubting the dx you have been given, just BA is over and inappropriately dx'ed), particularly Type 2 as I have, is that you can be very well in between sudden life-threatening attacks. The massive variety is difficult and you can't assess how someone is longterm on readings taken on one day. For instance, last week my lung function was 120% (i.e. better than would be expected in someone without asthma) but six weeks ago I was really unwell and it was hovering around 30 - 40% and I closely avoided admission. I appear very well currently and this can be difficult because it's hard for people who haven't seen me really ill to believe the severity of my asthma.

Any labelling needs to be done through taking a history, preferably by someone who knows the patient well rather than as a one off measure, particularly if the patient is very variable.