O.K. after Eric's little episode yesterday(I posted about it, but the post disappeared. I think it was because I named it the same as someone else's) and his troubled breathing since birth.
I decided to find out more about asthma. I really know nothing about it at all. I always thought that asthma was a 911 emergency situation. My sisters attacks were always very scary. She sounded and looked like she was dying, and in reality she probably would have if she hadn't gotten emergency treatment. So this was always asthma to me nothing less.

Well,
DA*N IT! Eric has asthma. from the symptoms and frequency of symptoms it's severe asthma that should be treated. The attack that he had yesterday actually warranted a trip to the hospital.
How come no one told me?!?!
or at the very least told me what to look out for
Docs all said things like
"Breathing difficulties"
"Breathing problems"
"Reflux breathing. Nothing we can do for it but treat his reflux"
"Something upper respiratory is going on"
"Does he always sound like this? He's having trouble breathing."
"His air way seems restricted"
I could go on for hours with all they said to beat around the freakin' bush

I've also been ASKED several times by different docs if he had asthma and I always say no, because no doctor ever said he did!

Why didn't someone say something to me?!?!
Why didn't one of those lousy doctors say he had asthma?!? Or even "I think he might have asthma. Let's look into it."

UGH!

I don't get it! Thank God I don't know where these people live right now, because I am so angry.

How could they just let something like this go on. and here I am thinking "There's nothing I can do. He has reflux breathing. There's nothing that can be done. When he grows out of his reflux his breathing will be better."

Even his PH probe paper work had asthma all over it. The freakin box even said ASTHMA on it. But did anyone tell me that they thought Eric had asthma or that the probe was to try to see if reflux was the cause?!?! No! Let's just let her wonder why her kid isn't breathing right. Let's let her struggle every night with her little boys sleep. Let's wait until he has a severe enough attack that he needs emergency attention or better yet dies. Let's wait until more damage is done to his lungs so he has no chance at all to be asthma free ever in his life!
Let's just go ahead and let him suffer for a little while longer, maybe we can deprive him of enough oxygen and good sleep to stunt his growth even further!!!!!! Let's make his body work really hard so he can burn all those calories off as his mom fights to get them in.
YES! I'm being over dramatic here, but UGH! WHY?

Alright so it may be caused by his reflux and it may not be. Does this matter?! He has it. You all (meaning all the docs) KNOW IT. tell me and then let's help him together.

Why? I mean are doctors being sued because of asthma diagnoses or something? Is there something I don't know?
I really don't under stand this.

Minnie. I replied to your other post, so I don't know where it has got too.

I said if I remember that it sounded a lot like asthma to me, and that you should get him to the ped, as it can be serious and can be a 911 like you said. I actually don't think he was having an asthma attack with the running from what you described but it sounded like he was having a hard time with it.

I am so sorry that no one told you about it, I just assumed that it would have been covered, we were diagnosed with the pH probe also. Let me know how the Drs go.

Rachel,
I've calmed down a bit. I should be used to this by now with all the brushing off we have gone through, but this is like the straw that broke the camels back ya know.
All those times I described his empty cough, his sudden paleness, shallow quick breathing, and sounding like he just ran a marathon even when he's just sitting around, etc etc.

Maybe they were just waiting to see. That's what I've been doing and I'm his mother.

To see him not go yesterday really bugged me. He would take a few steps and then stop. So not like him to not play. Not to run. He has always had a hard time keeping up with that kid, but this was different.


So,
If his asthma IS caused by his reflux (PH probe says normal to minimal, and nothing at night when his breathing seems to be the worst) then will asthma treatments not help him like they said? "Nothing you can do but treat his reflux"
The PPI does help, but his breathing always gets worse after a cold and this last one took him for a ride.

I'm a certified mental case, cus now I'm sitting here not wanting to even tell the doc about this because I don't want him on any meds. I don't want him to be sick!
UGH! Eric the things you make me think.

Big hugs Minnie, I really know what you are thinking. I am at work at the moment, so I will get to all your answers when I get home, I will try answer your questions as well as I can.

Minnie - I know for my best friend's six year old...when he was young they refused to label it as asthma even though he was on DAILY asthma medicine. The old school docs say you can't label them until at least 2 years old. Maybe that's why they never said it and then as he got older they didn't pursue it when you said "no - he doesn't have asthma" ???

I know Brayden could not run around for more than a minute or two without going into major coughing fits and trouble breathing. We had albuteral to help him, but it wasn't doing much good to help him play. So, we put him on a daily preventor (Pulmicort Respules) and all his symptoms went away after a week or two including the night coughing. (Cant quite remember) He still has more trouble if he gets a cold/ear infection...but we just add Albuteral for a few days and the wheezing goes away.

I'm not sure, but I don't think his reflux had to correlate to the asthma. Brayden's Ph Probe did show reflux, but it showed that he refluxed pretty consistently all day long and only a few times while he slept. But his asthma was always worse at night before Pulmicort. So for Brayden, I don't think they are related necessarily.

I would go back to his pediatrician armed with information and see what they say. I have had two pediatricians tell me that a pediatrician should be the first treating doctor for asthma. If, the pediatrician prescribes medications and you dont see improvement...then you should be seen by a pulminologist.

Also - not everyone's asthma is the worst case...My dad will have an asthma attack and we have to take him to the ER immediately. But, mine is less severe. When it was really bad during one of the pregnancies, I was more like you described Eric but I never went to the ER for it even though I was confined to the couch for over a month due to the severity of it. I just saw the pulminologist a lot! (Pulmicort worked for me as well after that). For me, my asthma has only ever caused me to go to the ER once.

Minnie, I am late and running off to work, but just wanted to mention Roni has been working on site and found new served, that is why some posts are missing. She said it could not be avoided, unless she had shut the boards down while being done.

I know how upset you must be it reminds me of when Beth, PAGER, had read our book and said that everthing in our story screamed GERD and no one knew or told us...so sad.

On a positive note, I 'think' if someone is diagnosed young with asthma, sometimes they do outgrow it???? I hope I am right on this one.

Best wishes

So,
If his asthma IS caused by his reflux (PH probe says normal to minimal, and nothing at night when his breathing seems to be the worst) then will asthma treatments not help him like they said? "Nothing you can do but treat his reflux"
The PPI does help, but his breathing always gets worse after a cold and this last one took him for a ride.

I'm a certified mental case, cus now I'm sitting here not wanting to even tell the doc about this because I don't want him on any meds. I don't want him to be sick!
UGH! Eric the things you make me think.

OK I am a little confused, did they say his asthma is caused by the reflux? I don't know if they can predit that unless he has a cough. Does he have a cough?

When the do the pH probe and ask you to write down what has happened, like cough, vomit etc.. they work out if the reflux is causing that thing. For Parker he coughed so much on his probe and the GI could see that when he coughed it didn't co incide with acid KWIM? So if you have cough caused by reflux then the acid would go low and then they would cough KWIM? I get that, but without a cough how could they tell you that he didn't have asthma?

I don't know why Drs haven't picked this up, but Cheryl is right, a lot of Drs wont diagnose reflux till past two. But in saying that if you give him some asthma treatment for a couple of weeks, and it improves then it is generally asthma.

With the meds, I really know what you mean. Cooper was diagnosed asthma early too, all he gets is a cough in winter, you know that could be anything.... then it would get worse when he was sick, I would give him the asthma meds and he would be OK, and I would think, that was a fluke, I did it over and over, I finally got that he needs the meds.

These meds are really safe and should be used, when I told the Dr once that I didn't like giving Cooper the puffer, he said to me, that each time he coughs it scars his lungs, that scared me a lot. Generally both my boys are on low doses and when they are sick we double it, and then when they are better, it gets lowered again.

Good luck with the Drs, I hope that you don't have any problems, go armed with your info and just say to them, what can 2 weeks of breathing treatments to see if it works, really do to him. If it is asthma you will notice an improvement very quickly.

Thanks Rachel,
I'll be leaving to see the doc as soon as I'm done posting here.

Thing is this doc is a little scary because he's the pill pushing type. Ex: One time I went in to make sure Eric didn't have an ear infection (per GI's advise) and he said "No signs of any infection going on" But then prescribed him ear drops and antibiotics.
Emilia went in for pink eye and we walked out with 5 RXs.
All she needed was some antibiotic drops for her eye!

He's also the guy that gave Eric way too high a dose of allergy meds (pharm called and wouldn't even fill it) and quadruple what he should have had with his PPI.

Why can't I find the right doc. Why can't I go see Emilia's old doc. UGH he was so great, we thought the same way and he was so terrific. So much so that he started his own practice and I can't even afford to go see him. :(

Ugh Minnie ((((Hugs)))) I do not think that you are being dramatic at all! YOu are mad, this is your child. People can be sooooo "dumb" you know?!

Well, now are you getting him on meds? Does he ped think now that he has asthma?

(((hugs))) again.

Just got back from the docs

He put him back on his allergy medicine to see if it helps (I'm doubtful, because it didn't do anything but cause problems before) and he's setting Eric up with a Pedi Pulmonologist. He also said he wanted Eric to see a Otolaryngologist, but that he wanted the Pulmonologist to see him first and collaborate with her.
Eric doesn't have any infections or anything and he said his lungs sound good. If he has another attack he wants me to call him, and he said that he would have a listen anytime and meet me at the office, but that he didn't feel comfortable treating him for asthma because he's so young and small. So he's handing the task over to the specialist.

He thinks this is all because of the PPI decrease the GI RXed and reflux is completely to blame, but he feels Eric also has allergies and that the allergy meds will help.

She doesn't take my insurance but he said that he would give it his best shot because he really likes her. If she still refuses to take us, the search is on, but he said he would take care of everything for me. This is weird because I always had to find my own doctors before. Kinda cool that his office is going to do all that searching for me.

The allergy med is supposed to make him drowsy, but I didn't notice anything the last time he was on it.
PLEASE at least let me have that side effect for a few nights! I'm tired

Thanks for listening girls!
I really do appreciate it.

What allergy med did they put him on?
I'm on Singulair and Claritin for my asthma. Either one by itself doesn't do anything but the combo took me from having 1-2 mild asthma attacks a day to once a month.

It's really hard to diagnose asthma in small children. It's just trial and error. If asthma meds work then keep giving them, KWIM?

Great news Minnie! You have to have a major meltdown in order for doctors and nurses to really start working for you....pretty poopie but it's just the way the ball bounces. I've had a sinmilar experience....colic colic colic forever colic...../SLAP

Zyrtec again.
I don't think it helped at all. He started the zegerid (much higher dose than now) a week before trying zyrtec and the PPI is what helped his breathing, but I'm willing to try the allergy med again.
I think I just need to take my doctor hat of for a while but it's hard to do when you don't really trust the people who are doctoring.

Wouldn't it be cool if we could get all the specialists in some kinda huge conference room and just stand at a podium and talk about our children and have them ask questions and then get together to treat them and figure it all out? UGH! That would be rockin'!

Yeah I will take one of those conference roooms to sort my kid out!

I am really glad that he listened and took it serious. I know meds seem like a bad thing, but you will be able to notice if they are working, The will either work or they wont, so you will be able to work it out with that.

I'm sorry they didn't tell you he had asthma. I think Eliana may have a mild case of it as well most likely relfux related. :hug:

Hi Minnie,
I can completely relate to your anger .I have Oliver who just turned three. We went through hell trying to work out what was wrong with him. I told the doctors he projectile vomitted every night, he coughed all the time, he went pale and sometimes blue. he did not eat until 2 and still is pathetic. he had so many invasive tests, and still they told me it was reflux. When he was 22 months he had to go to hospital again for not eating and in the night he did his standard coughing etc and a nurse walking past said 'he needs his puffer he is having an asthma attack". I said he doesn't have asthma and she said that is asthma. He has been on a preventer since that day (30th June 2005) and never been sick again. I was so angry we all went through so much and he could have died and yet no one mentioned Asthma. In fact it was suggested the problem was me and they started monitoring my mental health.

I now have an 8 month old girl and she also has asthma but she has been spared all the pain and suffering because it was treated so early.

So i really feel for you - we have been through that nightmare