Cough variant asthma and pneumonia

Hi my first post on here

I have had asthma all my life and so do 3 of my children but with my little boy who is 5 I am at a loss of what to do

Ethan had pneumonia last yr and every time a ambulance was phoned it was by a dr ..yet whenever we got to hospital he was monitored on the assessment unit for a hr then off we went home ..his symptoms took a good month to clear up

Christmas day this yr he was coughing loads and his oximeter was 94-95 his temp was normal I took him to out of hrs gp who said his chest was clear

27th took him to my gp his oximeter showing 93-95 pulse 181 temp 40.1 Gp said his chest was clear but could see his body was fighting something and due to his history he would prescribe amoxocillin

Bad night on 27th so on 28th I ring to be told no appointments as they shut at 12 but if i felt he was bad take him to a&e and as his oxygen was dropping to 90 for a few seconds then going upto a max of 94

In a&e I saw a dr who said his right lung wasnt letting air in his right lung and sent us for xray that showed widespread pneumonia in both lungs so he prescribed clarithromycin told me to still give amoxocilin and also 20mg of prednisolone for 5 days and sent home the dr last words was he is going to be poorly for quite a few days yet

Now I get to today where he as a hacking cough and is only improving on ventolin but its not even lasting 2 hrs before he is choking again ..what would u do ..last time he went in ambulance 4x all called by dr,s at normal appointments and only once did they keep him in and thats because i started crying saying i felt useless and didnt like to see him struggling

his sats atm are temp 39.0 o2 95 pulse 176

I just dont know part of me thinks he as all the meds they can give his oxygen isnt too bad ..the other parts thinks i hate seeing him in so much pain he says it hurts 9/10 ..and surely they should be able to ease him somehow

sorry its so long

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Hi!

so sorry to hear youre having such a rough time with gour son but glad that you have come to the forum for support.

it sounds to me that he is really struggling though obviously im no expert. the only advice i can give is not to be afraid of making a fuss as you feel is needed as its always better to be safe than sorryy especially whers asthma is concerned. as my mum says you can deal with some staff saying nasty things but its a lot harder later to deal with not having got help when your child really did need it! so if in dount act! also dont ne afraid of giving too much ventolin as there is no risk of harmful effects through this. however too much depemdance on ventolin is also a sign of worsening asthma so ne aware.

i do hope things improve soon. let us know how you get on!

Rose xx

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Sounds like my son at the moment. He has pneumonia, thankfully mild enough that like your son his sats are staying high enough to stay home and not needing o2. I'm going to be ringing the gp first thing tomorrow as he's got one dose of antibiotic left yet he's still spiking temperatures and sounds crackly with a productive cough so it sounds like its hanging around. His sats are ok though so when we ended up at a&e they just monitored him for 3/4 hours and we increased his ventolin to 10 puffs four hourly which is helping the wheezing. He was crying saying his chest hurt this evening unsurprising really with the coughing fits he's been having and all I can give is calpol, it's so upsetting not being able to help him. I wish I could help him get all the junk off his lungs so it wouldn't hurt so much mostly.

I don't really have any advice other than if you're worried then obviously get him looked at. I personally don't know what else they can do so can't advise there either. You have my sympathy though seeing as I know how hard it is at the moment with my little guy.

I hope your son is better soon.

[Daveoh]

You've been treating symptoms, not the causes. The asthma is triggered by something - allergens, activity, pollution, food, etc. You have to address these first. My daughter takes two allergy meds every day.

Next, you should try a month with a daily inhaler, like QVAR, that is aimed at avoiding the use of emergency-only inhalers like Albuterol.