CONFUSED - GETTING BETTER WITH NO MEDS!!

Hi All

I'm very confused. Sorry for following ramble but it has to be long to explain situation.

We had to take Ollie into hosp today (he's 3 1/2) GP wanted to give him 3 more days of pred at 25mg - he's just finished 6 days of 20mg. Anyway i wasn't happy with this so we went into hospital for check up (also our consultant wants him checked out in hosp if he needs more than 3 days).

We got to hospital about 1.30 - ollie had had 10 puffs of salbutamol at about 10am - when we got to hosp he was coughing a bit and breathing using accessory muscles - neck and chest. Like this we would normally give 10 puffs of Salbutamol but nurses asked us to hold off until we saw dr - so we did. he didn't get any worse. Saw student Doc who saw this - but still held off until we saw proper doc. By about 4 - 4.30 he was asleep and fine - no coughing and no use of accessory muscles - without any medicine. Saw Dr and student - asked dr about this - student doc was there and she confirmed that he'd been showing signs of distress when she'd seen him. Didn't really get any answer as to why he'd improved!!!

Saw const paed at about 5 -5.30 by this time he was awake and coughing using accessory muscles again - we asked him about this as it's happeded before. Also student doc was there again and she confirmed that he'd been showing signs of distress when she'd seen him initially - he'd then been fine and he was now showing signs of distress again. He again didn't really give any reason - basically ignored point.

Anyway we were sent home as Ollie wasn't too bad - he wasn't prescribed any more pred which we were pleased about.

Obvioulsy i wouldn't want to hold off on giving meds at home and if in doubt i would always give Ollie his inhalers and seek medical advise. But this has happened twice this year whilst we've been in hosp for observation. I know in there he's a lot less active then when at home and he was asleep at one point. But i don't understand how he can go from needing medication and showing signs of distress to being ok.

I know last year when he was in hospital for 7 days - none of the meds seemed to make any difference (except) pred but once he was off that the others didn't seem to work - he was stuffed full of nebs - at one point back to back (salbutamol and atrovent and maybe something else i can't remember) on a least 4 hrly puffs of salbutamol and atrovent (can't remember what dose) but nothing seemed to make any difference. After he kicked off big time about nebs the dr decided to leave him alone to sleep as any effect the meds were having was being counteracted by him tantrum.

Anyway he didn't get any worse - he didn't get any better - but he never got any worse!!! He had an infection and reallly bad virus.

I am really confused as to what to do - if i'd listened to my GP ollie would now be on another course of stronger pred - which would set off a whole other paranoia!! - but obviously i can't always take him into hosp for observation - it's not practical and obviously would be a waste of resources. But i'm not particulary happy to 'test' this out at home as just because he's never got worse doesn't mean he never will!

I was wondering if anyone else had any experience of this as it seems odd to me.

Anyway sorry for long ramble - i hope it makes sense - and thanks to anyone who managed to make it too the end.

Cheers

Claire