Daughters asthma not under control

Hello all,after some worrying nights and days , our three year old has been given her first pred, course, she is still not over the worst but to add some more heavy weight to our careres shoulders, i,m Asthmatic too and am on pred for second time.Still no improvenment with both of us!

Difficult time right now, but our question is, what back up or support networks do all of you do when , you are totally exhausted from no sleep and hospital visits, etc, we are trying to set up an action plan for ourselves, but we feel it may well be very hard to arrange as, our asthma seems to come up so suddenly and as yet we have no real understanding on what causes(Triggers) three year old asthma yet

I, was an old poster from last site but have only now been able to get on line.(PREVIOUS NAME , CHARLIE)

[Hidden]

I am from Canada so I am not sure what your protocol in the hospitals are there. But here in Saskatchewan (a province in Canada) asthma is almost epidemic because of farming (grain dust, crop sprays, etc.) and usually when a small child under the age of 5 or 6 has to go on prednisone they are usually kept in the hospital until the asthma is responding to nebs. But if you have to stay at home it would be very difficult to look after a 3 year old all on your own especially if you are also sick. Sometimes it can be hard to ask for help but it sounds like maybe that is what you should do. Do you have any family members who could relieve you for a few hours so you could look after yourself? I really hope that you can find some help somewhere.

[Hidden]

Help and asking for it, is incredibly difficult thing for me to do, but now i realise that that is what i have to do, i may even have to pay for care when or if the bad times arise again.We live near to farming land, holland which is were we are based is incredibly flat and when the wind comes along is brings with it many pollens and probably differents triggers for our daughters Asthma, i,m sure, however after a trip to England which is were she was severe, we were in a large city and quite sheltered so, we are thinking that maybe a simple viral infection, which children get all the time, triggers her Asthma symtoms too.I also find that when im bad she is symptomatic, and i fear that she is stressing because , i,m not the same ""happy and healthy "" mummy that she is used to.I,m beginning to think that she is triggering her asthma through worry, and has anybody else had this .She clings to me so much more when i,m bad with my Asthma and crys for me, ofcousre it is the time when i need to be alone, but she crys, i need you mummy , i want you and god that is hard to listen to.I wondering how we acn get ourselves out of this cycle, which is getting worse by the day, not better.

[Hidden]

We also live on the prairies. The old joke is that we can watch our dog run away for 3 days!! We recently went on a trip to British Columbia which is another province in Canada, full of mountains and beautiful plants and trees. When you drive into the mountains from the prairies in Canada you go from flat land to mountains in a matter of minutes. Steven, my 9 year old, started having trouble breathing as soon as we turned the bend into the mountains. The difference of air (altitude) plants and trees were overwhelming for him. He suffered most of the time there. When my boys were young around your child's age, a virus would cause complete havoc in our home. Even if the virus was not a respiratory one they would have very bad asthma attacks. The older they get the better they can handle viruses. While I don't have actual asthma, my hayfever can cause a tight chest and shortness of breath sometimes. And yes, I do think there is a link between stress and asthma. Whenever I wasn't feeling well my boys would get worse and vice versa. My husband would joke that I had sympathy pains for my kids. I can feel the exhaustion in your typing and I really hope that you can get some rest. If I were there, I would definitely let you take a nap!

[KateMoss]

Hellooo!

Not sure of the Health set up in NL but do you have asthma nurses or someone at your doctors that can advise on a protocol or action plan?

otherwise, look at the main web site of Asthma UK - click on the green 'Home' Button at the top of this webs page and there are lots of resourses that you can down load and also you can order an action plan that either you can fill in with Peak flow limits for severity or take to your doctor to create an action plan.

There is information on how to make your home asthma friendly if you haven't tried that already.

Also, are there any support groups for asthma parents or parents in general with ill children.

Also, where abouts in NL do you live? I have friends in Utrecht. are you in a town or in the country side - crop pollen and harvesting dust can cause problems etc.

Anyway, sorry, cant be more help,

Take care

Kate

XXX

[Hidden]

Hi , we went off to doc,s to day and had long, long list of questions for him, we are really not better off.

However we have ordred a peakflow meter, the first ive had since being diagnosed, (18 monthes ago, approx).

Plus we are in process of getting more treatment from expert Asthma clinics, waiting on appointments, we did that today too.

We live more or less in country you could say, actually though our house in situated not far from a motorway, really quite close, perhaps this also can be a factor?

We live in Brabant area of holland.

I was given another course of antibiotics today, because i,m continually coughig up phelgm in mornings and have had blood in phelgm each morning, my doctor said my chest was clear but will give me an antibiotic anyhow?

I,m confused really as to why?

My daughter took her last pred, today and is asleep right now, but she has already awoken twice coughing , so probably in for a night of it again.

I didn,t realise up until now, how life changing ill health can affect everything in a family unit, sleepless nights, crying, giving medicines, remembering to give medicines,ordinary daily tasks just tire you out.

I,m in the mental phase of adjusting to a completly different mind set, did anybody else go through the adjustment phase, because lets face it, until your asthma is under control, it is pretty awful.

I have looked on site for info and have had and done different things around our home, the hard thing is though, having to stay inside house with windows closed in afternoon, when weather is hot and your three year old wants to play outside, what do you do?

Also, we are in process of trying to get a plan for doctor, until my lung specilaist informs my gp of what to do, i,m stuck in the middle with no real action plan.

I think i,m pretty much going to rely upon my own basic knowledge of mine and my daughters asthma as to what to push for!!

P.s

My mother has asthma too. three generations.HORRID THING that it is!!!

[Hidden]

Hell again, well, we are bothe what i call in a good phase of our Asthma, me, not much in the way of problems and our daughter doing ok again, however i was wondering if anyone can help us on this?

Our daughters paeditrician,(Who has specialised in Asthma)says that she really wants our daughter to eventually come down with her meds.

Great we whole heartedly agree, however thet last time we reduced her med(Seretide)she was bad.

The problem is , is that our daughter never seems (She is three)to get out of breath, she just like last time, starts coughing(No wheezing), till eventually the coughing gets more and more frequent.She was coughing every thirty secs, when she was put on Pred, but still no sighns of being out of breath.

Howver she did sleep for two days in afternoon for two to three hours, she was so tired i suppose.

My question is, is that her paeditrician seems to be pleased that she is showing no signs of being out of breath, however we are unclear as to , if she continues to cough, do we give her the ventalin, of could it be a simple viral infection!

Will the cough evetually result in something worse?