Hello, new here!

Hi,

My daughter Lily, is 9 and has ""difficult asthma"". She's on seratide, 2puffs twice a day, montelukast, cetirizine, flixonase, and has blue inhaler as per her asthma action plan. She's on prednisolone at the minute 30mg for 5 days as she's had an attack 3 times this week. On one of them we had to go to a&e. She's always had the persistent cough and never had a wheeze. The ambulance people practically laughed at us when we called them and said it's just a cough, not asthma. When we got to a&e they gave her a nebuliser of salbutamol, and she fell asleep, this was at 4.30am. I'm finding it really difficult to be believed that it's asthma, just because she's not got the typical wheeze associated with asthma. The paramedics made me doubt myself and sat watching while she struggled to breathe, only when I got angry did they take her to a&e!! Even then thru kept saying had she had a cold! It's so hard when you're on your own and the GP isn't open, you have to make that call of whether she needs a nebuliser or not. Our asthma nurse at addenbrookes is brilliant, and is a true gem, it's just the emergency services and a&e.

Sorry for the rant! It's just I feel her asthma is getting worse and I feel I'm winging it!

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Hi Emelie

Although I am a lot older than your daughter, her experiences of A&E sound so much like mine (and many others on the board) who do not (or rarely) wheeze. I am glad Lily did get a neb in the end as that is clearly what she needed. I had a cons in A&E last week tell me that my cough and breathlessness was not asthma because there was no wheeze! I tried to challenge him as to why a neb had helped and got my peak flow up before dropping again if it was not asthma but he discharged me despite being very SOB and living alone (not that I wanted to stay in but felt more nebs was needed). I have found that getting in that I am not a huge wheezer before they examine me usually helps and my diagnosis from a respiratory consultant is severe asthma (cough predominant) as I do sometimes wheeze but not often. Other people on here have written summaries to take with them, especially if the local hospital is not where their asthma team is based. Once I had a particularly bad time with a GP and printed a leaflet out from here which stated that an absence of wheeze does not indicate it is not asthma.

Sometimes it is hard getting the point across/correct treatment with non-typical asthma but it sounds as if you have a good relationship with the asthma team. I had a great cons and nurse at addenbrokes before I moved away. I would recommend discussing your concerns with them to as they may be able to put a plan in place if emergency treatment is required again.

I hope this helps. I found just knowing I wasn't alone a great support when I was having problems with not wheezing!

Take care

[juliesharp]

As a general un written rule if you do not wheeze you will spend your life being turned away from medics. I wish someone would do some research into why a wheeze is not always present. As medics live on research.

[Hidden]

Hi,

My daughter Lily, is 9 and has ""difficult asthma"". She's on seratide, 2puffs twice a day, montelukast, cetirizine, flixonase, and has blue inhaler as per her asthma action plan. She's on prednisolone at the minute 30mg for 5 days as she's had an attack 3 times this week. On one of them we had to go to a&e. She's always had the persistent cough and never had a wheeze. The ambulance people practically laughed at us when we called them and said it's just a cough, not asthma. When we got to a&e they gave her a nebuliser of salbutamol, and she fell asleep, this was at 4.30am. I'm finding it really difficult to be believed that it's asthma, just because she's not got the typical wheeze associated with asthma. The paramedics made me doubt myself and sat watching while she struggled to breathe, only when I got angry did they take her to a&e!! Even then thru kept saying had she had a cold! It's so hard when you're on your own and the GP isn't open, you have to make that call of whether she needs a nebuliser or not. Our asthma nurse at addenbrookes is brilliant, and is a true gem, it's just the emergency services and a&e.

Sorry for the rant! It's just I feel her asthma is getting worse and I feel I'm winging it!

Hi Emelie! When i was little i had asthma and my parents gave me milk of goat. I escape of asthma and i am very happy. If you don't have milk of goat, i know another way and it is the best.