Hi everyone, I've been doing a lot of browsing on this wonderful site for quite a few months now and feel it's finally time to post something myself.
My second son was very ill from the day he was born. He was diagnosed with severe asthma at 8 weeks of age because he couldn't get enough air to feed and kept turning blue. He (we!) spent most of his first year in hospital with recurrent pneumonia, was on antibiotic prophylaxis and nebulizer treatments (to give him decongestants and airway openers) 3 x daily (and more when he had an infection- which was most of the time despite the everyday antibiotics) and frequent short term and long term courses of Prednisolone (steroid). He lost huge amounts of weight by 11 months of age and couldn't eat so many foods. His belly would distend and he would begin to wheeze and a shocking gurgling sound would emanate from his throat when he ate something he couldn't tolerate. His diet was confined to rice, bananas and pears and heaps of vitamins. Dietitians didn't know what to do with him.
He had dangerous episodes and spent any weeks in hospital throughout his early school years. His body tolerated many more medications during those years.
I was told he was a 'mucousy asthmatic' and would have incurred long term lung damage as a result of his infections, leading to an early death- maybe in his early 40s.
As a 26 year old he has an average of 2 episodes of pneumonia every year and manages his health well.
Does he have cf? cf testing was never done. It scares me that he perhaps needs to do some treatments to ensure longer term lung health. He's not too likely to want to get testing done I think. Maybe I just have to watch and wait for more problems to develop now- not an easy thing to do.
~BTW My mother has always had shocking sinus problems which resulted in 4-5 surgeries during her lifetime. She is a chronic severe asthmatic.~
What do you all think? Should I press him to get something done? Or should I just let him live in relative peace until something more significant happens?
(Sorry this has ended up soooo long- tried to cut it down as much as I could!)
Am I overreacting here? Please be honest with what you think... I won't take offense.
My second son was very ill from the day he was born. He was diagnosed with severe asthma at 8 weeks of age because he couldn't get enough air to feed and kept turning blue. He (we!) spent most of his first year in hospital with recurrent pneumonia, was on antibiotic prophylaxis and nebulizer treatments (to give him decongestants and airway openers) 3 x daily (and more when he had an infection- which was most of the time despite the everyday antibiotics) and frequent short term and long term courses of Prednisolone (steroid). He lost huge amounts of weight by 11 months of age and couldn't eat so many foods. His belly would distend and he would begin to wheeze and a shocking gurgling sound would emanate from his throat when he ate something he couldn't tolerate. His diet was confined to rice, bananas and pears and heaps of vitamins. Dietitians didn't know what to do with him.
He had dangerous episodes and spent any weeks in hospital throughout his early school years. His body tolerated many more medications during those years.
I was told he was a 'mucousy asthmatic' and would have incurred long term lung damage as a result of his infections, leading to an early death- maybe in his early 40s.
As a 26 year old he has an average of 2 episodes of pneumonia every year and manages his health well.
Does he have cf? cf testing was never done. It scares me that he perhaps needs to do some treatments to ensure longer term lung health. He's not too likely to want to get testing done I think. Maybe I just have to watch and wait for more problems to develop now- not an easy thing to do.
~BTW My mother has always had shocking sinus problems which resulted in 4-5 surgeries during her lifetime. She is a chronic severe asthmatic.~
What do you all think? Should I press him to get something done? Or should I just let him live in relative peace until something more significant happens?
(Sorry this has ended up soooo long- tried to cut it down as much as I could!)
Am I overreacting here? Please be honest with what you think... I won't take offense.