Advice Please - 13 Year Old Son's Asthma

Hi, I'm new to the forum and I have 3 children with asthma, 2 very mild and the other well I don't know what to class his as.

He is 13 years old and had very mild asthma symptoms as a toddler, this disappeared for about 5 years and then out of the blue in March this year had a severe attack out of no where. He had a cold for a few days before (this has not normally been an issue, having a cold), on the Saturday & Sunday he seemed to be getting better so didn't worry to much and then Monday morning I thought this isn't right. We went straight to the doctors who put him on a nebuliser at the surgery for an hour, issued steroids (tablets) and sabutomel. His peak flow was 130 at the time and he had not once said that he was feeling ill etc. that weekend. We were sent home a couple of hours later and had to return mid afternoon. There was no improvement after further treatment on the nebuliser so he was admitted to hospital. Through the rest of Monday & Tuesday, he was given the nebuliser every 2-3 hours, placed on steroid tablets. He was released from hospital the Wednesday evening with steroid tablets for 5 days, more sabutomel and had to rest the rest of the week with instructions to take 6 puffs of sabutomel every 4 hours.

Since this episode in March, he has completely changed. He used to go out after school to play (only been out twice in 3 months), has no energy, has a chesty cough but his chest is clear of infection, eats fine and is not losing weight. His sabutomel has been reduced over the last 3 months and has also been on a steroid puffer but yet there is still no improvement and this is where I am really confused.

His current peak flow is 330 ( has a cold ), last week at the doctors he was 450. He is experiencing chest pain, tightness and coughing on a daily basis and still lacks any energy. He is also missing alot of school at least 2 -3 days a week which is also causing havoc with working. To be honest I am nearly at breaking point over this as the steroids are obviously working but why the remaining symptoms / illness? The doctor would rather wait a bit longer before doing blood tests etc, asthma clinic was not much help either as we have done every thing possible and are doing everything right.

Mentally this cant be doing my son any good and I sometimes wonder if he is over exaggerating his symptoms (please don't shout at me about that) but I as he wants to go on a skiing trip( Feb 11) with the school & knows he needs to get better before we allow him to go and also we may have to cancel our October holiday this year as we are not happy to take him away without him been stable I cant see how he would exaggerate his symptoms.

I would be very grateful for any advice, help etc.

Thank you

A very frustrated/ Confused Mum

[yaf_user681_23350]

Hi I've been ill since March, had mild asthma but now it's severe with lots of chest pain and I have stopped doing lots of the things I love. It's a really difficult situation, my Eldest Son nearly 13 gets symptoms of crohns (hubby has crohns) and has severe cramps and doesn't want to go to school, he looks in severe pain. I let him have one day off and made him go in the next, worried all day he would be ill but it was my youngest Son who was ill he has severe and difficult asthma, had to be put on nebuliser at school and they couldn't get hold of me (bad phone reception area!)My youngest has missed loads of school as he goes under quickly and it's just too much of a risk to send him to school as there is no nurse. Has your Son got a nurse at his school? if so you could go and see her and explain condition. My eldest has a card where he can show the teacher and leave class to see the nurse, if he visits her 3 x in a day, she then phones me to let me know the situation.Roll on when my youngest can go there!!I've missed quite a bit of time off work to sort my kids out lately, It's just such a worry. You could demand a blood test, it's not fair on your Son or you to carry on like this.Good luck

Kate x