Awaiting diagnosis

[Laura54321]

My son is 5 years old and has had 5 bouts of pneumonia, requiring hospitalisation, since January of this year. We are awaiting a ct scan and he has been discharged this time on long term antibiotics in a bid to prevent any more episodes before his scan. The consultant has told us they are expecting to find bronchiectasis. I am worried for the future. Anyone out ther with a similar story?

[Miche1981]

Hi my 5 year old son has been diagnosed with bronchiectasis via ct scan earlier this year. He had pneumonia in January in the same place as an earlier pneumonia as a baby so they did a ct scan. Strangely the bronchiectasis was worse on the other lung. He's now started twice daily physio with nebulised saline. He's had 3 x2 week courses of antibiotics since then. He's had a normal sweat test and some immune blood tests. He is having nasal brushing to test for PCD next month.

His 3 year old brother is very symptomatic, he's had pneumonia a few times first at 8 weeks and is on azithromycin as a long term antibiotic which has helped a lot. He suffers from viral wheeze every few weeks and takes a long time to respond to his inhalers. He's not had a CT but we think perhaps he also has damage. He is to be reviewed by his brothers respiratory consultant from September.

Our main concern is finding the cause of the bronchiectasis. I have it mildly too so we presume it's genetic.

Although it's upsetting to find out they have lung damage at least it means you can start the physio and aggressive use of antibiotics when needed to prevent any further damage happening. When well our boys are very active and apparently constant exercise is the key to keeping lungs healthy.

All the best for the CT and getting to the bottom of why he is so susceptible to the infections

MJ