Help please.

As I type my 5 year old son is in Hospital being treated for his Brittle Asthma, a diagnosis which was ""upgraded"" from asthma only last week.

About 9 days ago my lad started to develop a little cough, nothing to worry about as it was not persistent and not showing any signs of wheaze and he had no temperature. As the days went on the cough got worse but still no wheaze or temperature. Then last Tuesday the cough became much worse, but still no wheaze or temperature, but we decided to start using his salbutamol inhalor and sought advice from our GP. The GP started his prednisanol and told us to observe him and if the cough worsened then he should be taken to A&E and we should expect a stay in hospital as my little lad had to be ventilated 3 years ago under very similar circumstances. After 7 hours (yes 7 hours) constant coughing in A&E, they finally admitted him to the ward and started treatment by way of a salbutimol nebuliser. Within 2 hours his condition worsened and he started having a full blown asthma attack, wheazing, temperature and very low sats.. Treatment was increased, but I thought we were heading for another stay in intensive care. Fortunatley, after almost everything else had failed, they have got his condition under control using Magnesium Sulphate, and thankfully he seems to responding to that, although I'm not getting complacent.

My sons asthma is so infrequent, that he hasn't even used his salbutamol inhalor for 15 months. He hasn't been hospitalised for 18 months (and even then he was only in for 2 days with a short course of prednisanol and salbutamol nebs). Suddenly he's in hospital, and as close as you can get to being in intensive care.

The doctors treating him say his condition is so rare, that the normal warning signs don't appear, no wheazing, no temperature and no low Sats , and that's why A&E didn't hospitalise him sooner.

Sorry for the long wided explanation, but the reason for my post is simple. Does anyone on here present the same or similar symptons (ie. hardly any) before such a serious attack?

Thanks in advance,

Jason.

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Hi jason,

Firstly let me say that I hope your little boy is doing better.

Up until January this year my asthma was totally controlled with no symptoms except when I would have a big attack out of the blue and end up in a&e and resus.

For me this was classed as type 2 brittle asthma (mt asthma is in the middle of a flare up at the moment so no longer falls into this category).

If your son is under a consultant (and if he's not then ask for him to be referred) then they can write him up an action plan that you can take with you to a&e or they can have on his records (i am on a list at the hospital as a 'known asthmatic' so they know what works for me and how to treat me as soon as I arrive).

This will hopefully help. Avoid delays like you've had this time in getting the right treatment.

Take care

X

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Hope your son gets better very soon. Can i first stress that i am not a brittle asthmatic but only had it in the last 4 years. I am the same as your son, no wheeze chest clear but i can suddenly get very short of breath, take inhaler, and for me have saline nebs somtimes helps in October last year started off like any other attack but got worse and i started wheezing as i only ever cough, which i did aswell for England i think!! lol. joking aside i lasted about 20 mins and then hubby had to rush me to a & e had nebs, steroids etc and later discharged. The nurses said look your sats are fine!! in some people they can be then suddenly drop. What i am saying it varies per individual and how they react to asthma there is no set rules. i hope this helps and you lad gets better soon

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Thank you for the replies.

My little lad is still in hospital, and had a bad night last night, so I think it's going to be a little longer yet.

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Oh no, sorry to hear he's not well yet. I hope he improves soon. xx

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Thanks for the update jason, I was thinking about your little boy yesterday (i have a 5 year old boy too).

I really hope he improves soon.

Hugs x

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Thanks all

@ Angelica. He's deffinately on the mend now, but he had to be ventilated for 24 hrs on Wednesday after he had a bronchil spasm, which, as a lot of people on here know, is incredibly distressing. Thankfully he can't remember any of it, and thinks the doctors gave him some sleep medicine to cure his poorly cough.

They've upped his preventative meds, and we're having oxygen and nebulizers delivered to our home today.

Hopefully he'll be back home today or tomorrow.

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Wishing your son well & hope he will be back where he belongs this weekend!

[Asthma-girl]

I do hope your son continues to improve and that he is able to get home soon

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sorry to hear he's had such a tough time but glad he's now improving and hopefully he's home with you now.

hugs x

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Firstly i really hope your son is better now. The symptoms you describe of no temp, sats normal and no wheeze is me and i have had a cough for last few days getting worse i am on pred, symbicort and ventolin and montelukast with no improvement. Also i have had fully controlled asthma up until feb this year and since then i have had 8 attacks!

It is very frustrating when all the 'normal' asthma checks come back normal but you know something is wrong.

Do you know what the exact term for your sons condition is called?? i could maybe mention it next time i am in A&E?!

Kind Regards,

Sadie

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Gosh Jason, I can't believe what you and you lad have been through. Poor little thing. Is he still on the mend? Well, reading your post has made me really start to think about my lad - also very atypical, never wheezes, doesn't show much from the outside. I'm uhmming and ahhing about asking for a referral to a respiratory consultant to get to the bottom of why he's so atypical. Maybe my son is brittle too? His sats seem to dip from out of nowhere and yet he doesn't externally show any symptoms.

Anyway, I hope you're all feeling less frazzled now? Keep strong and keep being the good parent that you are. Always remember to trust your instincts - it sounds like a cliche, but you know your son better than anyone else. Xx

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Sorry for the delay in replying everybody, but it's been a hectic few weeks, and heartfelt thanks for all the kind messages

Thankfully my son is better, and even returned to school yesterday, after 3 weeks off, and all his lovely little friends welcomed him back.

We've got meetings coming up with the consultants soon to see how we proceed. In the meantime we have a letter. It simply says that if we arrive at A&E because my son has a persistent cough, then he should be admitted to a ward without delay, regardless of the fact that he has no other asthmatic symptons. This is a relief, because twice now the A&E doctors have not admitted him to a ward, and twice he has had to be ventilated.

Finally, I've just been on to my holiday insurance company because he now has oxygen at home, and our holiday insurance has gone from £80 to £586. That's for 10 days in Spain!

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I'm very glad to hear that your son is well again and back at school. And that you have the all important letter for a&e to follow. Not so happy to see how much your holiday insurance has gone up by though, must be more than the cost of his holiday I hope all the family enjoy the holiday in Spain.