Things are looking up!

[Saplam]

I posted on here a few days ago as my dad has pif and had declined dramatically over the last two weeks. He was admitted to hospital a week ago stuck in a cycle of coughing, shortness of breath and passing out. The hospital and his consultant were useless, he was discharged the following day and we were left to cope alone over the weekend.

Then enter our angels!! A fantastic Gp visited and reviewed everything and made a referral to Macmillan. In short hypotension and diabetic hypos were contributing to his blackouts and a chest infection and oral thrush making his cough worse! A week down the line he has stabilised and is much better. Whilst he still has a cough it's not as bad and we have mechanisms in place to try and control it. I'm disappointed that the respiratory team had basically written him off blaming all his symptoms on pif without further investigations. Going forward we now understand that long term oxygen can lead to a dry mouth and throat making you prone to oral thrush. It's important to keep the mouth moist, we have a artificial saliva spray and giving dad honey and lemon (it soothes the cough and has anti bac:fungal properties).

Thanks to everyone who posted replies. Whilst we're not out the woods yet things are looking up 😊

[cofdrop-UK]

I am so pleased there has been a little improvement for your dear Dad.

Love cx

[PastMeBest]

Hi Saplam , it is good to hear that with proper medical attention your father has improved. I have IPF and suffer with an annoying cough on occasion and have to juggle my medication to try and get rid of it. I hope your father continues to improve.

Regards. John

[Saplam in reply to PastMeBest]

It seems to be par of the course but in Dads case it was exacerbated by an underlying chest infection and oral thrush. At the moment we've only been given morphine to help with the cough. I'd be interested to learn how you manage your cough?

[Billiejean_2]

Always so great to hear of someone improving. Wonderful news !