Rather long post, sorry...My daughters asthma is out of control...

My 14 year old daughter got a cold, the 2nd week of January. We doubled her dose of the purple inhaler in the morning and the evening as we normally do when she has a cold. She started to be sick a couple of times in the night (just phlegm), which is quite normal for her when she has a cold. However she started to be sick in the day as well.

We took her to the docs on 27/1 and he said she had bronchitis and gave her 5 days of antibiotics and 5 days of the pink dissolvable tablets (only five tablets per dose). She continued to be sick 3 or 4 times per day, phlegm only every time so we took her back to the docs who said it was not on her chest anymore but the viral infection was still there and she just had to wait for it to go.

Since then we have been backwards and forwards so many times and the doc sent a phlegm sample off to the hospital which came back clear. We have been monitoring her peak flow for nearly four weeks now and it is all over the place. After this the doc final said it was her asthma causing the problem and gave her montelukast tablets and referred my daughter to hospital. After just four days of the tablets she stopped being sick though her peak flow didn’t change much. We worked out that my poor daughter had been sick 3 or 4 times a day for 31 days continuously up until this point!

Last Saturday we received a letter from the hospital saying they had cancelled our hospital appointment because they didn’t think it was the correct course of action. We were distraught and on Monday we went to see the doc. It turned out that the receptionist had referred my daughter to the wrong hosp dept! It was sorted and we now have an appointment on the 3rd April. As this is so far away we asked for more steroid tablets (the wonderful asthma nurse for asthma UK told us exactly what to ask for) and he prescribed 7 days worth of 8 of those pink dissolvable steroid tablets (after a considerable amount of pushing from us).

Her peak flow is a little better but she still has to take her blue inhaler loads each day. If she laughs, sneezes, walks upstairs etc. etc. she needs her inhaler and she is so so tired all the time. Ive keep reading that a blue puff should last 4 hours but she seems to need two puffs straight away to stop her from coughing and it only lasts until she moves again.

What I was wondering is does anyone else throw up phlem rather than be breathless with their asthma and can anyone give us some advice on how to deal with this until her hospital appointment. We are distraught and don’t know what to do to help her and she has missed so much school.

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Really sorry to hear about your daughter. I would say is keep taking her back to the doctors and see whether he could push for an earlier appointment. The other way is to see whether the consultant takes private patients, if he does enquire whether you could do this for the initial appointment to get your daughter seen quicker and then wait for the NHS if you wish. Another way is to take her to the local a&e if she gets really bad and sit on them until they do somthing and don't leave before they do - insist that she stays in, i know its not nice but i did this a few years ago and it worked!

good luck and let me know how you get on, pm me if you wish

[angievere]

I am really sorry to hear about your daughter - my 14yr old son has had asthma all his life so I know how you feel. He doesnt have the phlegm sickness you describe, but I have had it in the past (I am also a lifelong asthmatic) but not as bad as that. Has your daughter tried any indigestion remedies? I take Gaviscon and find that helps.

As Lola says, keep going back to the doctor. It sounds as if yr daughter's asthma is uncontrolled if her pf is all over the place and she needs a lot of reliever. I would phone the consultant's secretary and ask if the hospital appointment can be brought forward - explain how poorly she is and say she's missing a lot of school.

I do hope things improve. Please feel free to pm me, I have a lot more I could say especially regarding school.

[angievere]

Hi Kippers, thanks for your pm but I cant reply as your setting is set not to receive pms. You will need to reset it so I can reply.

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Hi

My son is 14 and been on inhalers since he was 4 month old. His early years were a nightmare always ill with his asthma. We were never away from the gps surgery. And the only way we got a asthma consultant was through him being admitted to A&E a lot of times. His asthma improved a lot when he was put on Montelukast.

His asthma is a bit better these days. He still misses a lot of school, as he has constant colds and picks up everything going round. He is always phlemy but not often wheezy, and is tired most of the time.

Hopefully you will get in earlier to see consultant if you ask. We leant that you do have to be a bit pushy to get the right help. Stick to your guns, as you know your daughter best. Sounds like she is having a really bad spell at the moment poor thing. There is nothing worse than seeing them so weak and ill.

Hope she better soon

Shelly

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A quick update...

My daughters steroids have finished now and we went to see the doctor again last night. On Friday and Monday we managed to get my daughter to school for two hours each day (I arranged this with the school).

My daughter still coughs when she moves around and is scared to death of being sick again. She is taking her blue inhaler between 10 and 16 times a day when she coughs and she is so so tired when she does anything, though we have been taking her for a short walk each day.

The doctor decided not to give her another cause of steroids but is leaving her on the montelukast as she stopped being sick (coughing up phelm) after 3 days only of taking these. He is also going to ring the hospital to ask for her appointment to be brought forward (its currently 3/4).

He asked my daughter to leave the room and he did question is whether she actually needs the blue inhaler this much and whether worrying about the being sick is making her worse. He also said the hosp may just send her to learn breathing exercises?

I don't know what to think about this. I do know she coughs so much first thing in the morning until she takes her blue inhaler, but the coughing at night doesn't happen everynight now. When she moves she has a phlemy cough which doesn't last long at all now as she immeadiately takes her blue again. She is never breathless but her chest does feel tight until she takes her blue. I do know that she is scared to death of throwing up phlem again (but who wouldn't be after 31 days continueously of being sick). I think if she didn't take her blue inhaler she would throw the phlem up again and if this happened at school i know i wouldn't get her there again.

We are at the stage where our fight seems to be worn down and we don't know what to think or do. My daughter is scared of being sick and just wants cuddles all the time and it is so hard to get her to do anything. I hang around my daughters school for the two hours while she is there as i am so worried about her there too (it isn't worth me going home as it's half hour drive away from home). It is affecting all our lives and we feel so let down by the doctors. Worse than that though is i feel really jealous of other people who have kids that breeze through life. Does anyone else feel like this or am i just being awful. Finding this all hard to cope with. I so wish it was me and not my daughter!

[angievere]

Dont worry too much at this stage about what your GP says the consultant might do, it will be up to the consultant to examine your daughter and decide what to try. A lot of ventolin can cause trembles/agitation, so maybe this is what he is referring to. Has he prescribed anything for the sickness?

Does your daughter use a peak flow meter? This is useful for monitoring asthma.

Re. school - if she can get in for short periods and you are able to take her, then carry on. As I mentioned to you in my pm, we did that for my son in yr 7. Not great but certainly better than nothing. Keep reassuring your daughter things will turn out ok, and let her rest if that's what she needs. I hope the consultant's appointment comes through soon.

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Phlem and Bubble Pep

Hi my 7 year old has this problem with phlem and we were told that at his age he can't spit it out like adults and instead ends up being sick with it. Our regional asthma nurse organised for us to see the phisio and she started him on bubble pep which is when he has to blow into a large soft drink bottle half filled with water and a drop of washing up liquid with a huge tube - 30 to 50 times twice a day. He enjoys this as the bottle looks like an erupting volcano.

Has it worked? Well he now has a very loose cough as a result and you can here the phlem being a lot looser, so he can now swollow it, but I think it has made his asthma worse in the beginning as all the gunk is coming out from deep down.

We too are in the downward spiral at the moment with our wee one just finished a 5 day course of steroids (6 at a time) yet still needing his blue inhaler all the time and unable to do his normal stuff - including playing with lego as its just too much effort for him. I find this very distressing to see and you feel so helpless, especially as they rack up the days off school, as you know that this has its own issues with anxiety about going back and work missed.

Hope this helps - my first ever discussion post!