I have a headache!

[-Ralph-]

Oh, jeez, is it morning already?

A night in the Childrens ward for the second time this year. I'm knackered!

Proper asthma attack, try to get him to stop panicking and start breathing whilst waiting for the ambulance stuff, then he did it again in the hospital. Getting kicked off by a chest infection. Pumped him full of steroids and antibiotics and he's on a salbutamol nebuliser every two hours. He's breathing normally now, but they'll need to wean him off the nebulisers and see him sustain his own breathing for a period of time before he can come home.

That boy is getting far too good at scaring the f****g sh!t out of his parents!

[pookie]

glad the little chaps ok and in good hands... chin up etc

[Quedos]

Least you are all in the right place - Q hugs to you and Sandrine.

Kids will do that though for the rest of your life - so i get told

[Owenski]

Glad all is ok now, I dread that kind of moment. :(

[Bri w]

Scary stuff -Ralph-. Large whisky reqd?

No2 daughter gave us a number of similar frights, and at 25 she still frightens me when she gets a cold and starts coughing and wheezing.

[kellyjo]

Glad hes ok now Ralph. My 5 yr od has mild asthma, I dread the day he has a bad attack.

[Bibio]

scary stuff. gald the wee man is ok.

[missyburd]

Heck. Glad to hear the little man is ok now. YC once had a bad asthma attack when a little boy, he's not had one since, scared his mam so much if she hears so much as a wheeze it's straight onto the inhaler, got me paranoid as well now. Such a scary thing asthma, well anything that compromises airways :(

[Luckypants]

Ralph mate I'm sure its very scary for you, but as a childhood asthma sufferer let me tell you its a lot more scary for him. You did the exactly the right thing to try to calm him and help him to breathe - a hard thing for a scared youngster.

I had several stays in hospital, one which meant I missed an entire half term of school in year 5 (I think - I'm crap with these new fangled school years!). I was not in good shape and scared the crap out of my parents more than once. The point is I got over it and have enjoyed sport since my early teens, I'm sure your son will too.

In the meantime, group hug time! :grouphug: Thoughts with you and your family in this difficult time.

[maviczap]

Been there with my eldest when she was 3, really scary stuff, doctors out in the middle of the night is not good for ones health, so I'm glad he's ok.

Things will get better in time once they've got his medication sorted out

[dizzyblonde]

Been there with Dylan when he was younger. Sitting in hospital at 3am with him to stuck to a wall via a mask is my idea of fun...............not! I got a portable nebuliser on loan from the Dr for a couple of weeks sometimes, he spent 8 weeks off school in yr 1, and I had to get him to do work at home, to keep up.

Scary it is....but they do grow out of it Ralph. Dylan isn't asthmatic anymore, he just gets really bad chesty coughs for weeks instead. Not needed inhalers for a few years.
I found Central heating is the enemy, open windows and fresh air if you can, works wonders;)
Although, it does make me wonder if your lad has it brought on with hayfever, if hes had an attack?

[Specialone]

Aww, poor wee man, hope it's a one off from now.

Hope things improve mate.

[-Ralph-]

Thanks for the good wishes folks.

He's been on normal inhalers since this morning, albeit 8-10 puffs at a time. Touch and go whether they would let him home tonight as he wasn't managing 4 hours between doses without having problems, but the doctors changed their minds as the last time he was having problems he was asleep so they left him alone as his oxygen wasn't too bad, then in the next hour the breathing difficulty relieved in his sleep without help from the inhaler and his oxygen level went up. So doctors decided he could come home.

I'm asthmatic anyway so I know what to look for and can recognise when he is getting bad, so we just have to give him 8 puffs every 4 hours and keep him under observation, and he has steroids.

The scary bit it when he's really struggling to breathe, can't talk to you because he can't catch enough breath, and he's starting to get distressed and panicked, and you are like "where the f**k is that ambulance?" and other than keeping him quiet and breathing with him, there is nothing you can do about it. Your kids life is at risk and you are completely helpless.

Maybe hayfever Dizzy with the heat wave we had up to Monday, but the hospital are blaming a chest infection and he is still coughing a lot.

[andrewsmith]

Glad the young one is doing ok!

Been there done that also, was on steroid inhalers for a good couple of years. Still need Salbut if i train

[maviczap]

It will improve as the steriods in the inhaler work over time, although we'd cosidered getting a nebuliser as the instant effect it had on stopping the breathing spasms was very good.

But since that one attack my eldest had at 3, shes never had another attack like it.

She's 13 now, still uses the brown inhaler every night, but to be honest I don't think she needs it at all.

But better safe than sorry.

She also has the annual flu jab as a precaution

[-Ralph-]

It's amazing how asthma reacts and changes to things. I moved to a village surrounded by farmland where the busiest road is the A14 and is 5 miles away and my asthma has pretty much disappeared since we moved here. Not using my inhalers on a daily basis now. Before this I lived in Solihull a stones throw from the M42 and a very busy A34 urban dual carriageway, I've never had such bad asthma, first 'proper' attack in 15 years, and this was where my son developed his first asthma problems. Before that I lived in Scotland about 500yds from the M8 motorway, and I had pretty steady day to day asthma. I'm now convinced that in my case traffic fumes was the trigger.

[maviczap]

It's amazing how asthma reacts and changes to things. I moved to a village surrounded by farmland where the busiest road is the A14 and is 5 miles away and my asthma has pretty much disappeared since we moved here. Not using my inhalers on a daily basis now. Before this I lived in Solihull a stones throw from the M42 and a very busy A34 urban dual carriageway, I've never had such bad asthma, first 'proper' attack in 15 years, and this was where my son developed his first asthma problems. Before that I lived in Scotland about 500yds from the M8 motorway, and I had pretty steady day to day asthma. I'm now convinced that in my case traffic fumes was the trigger.

I'd agree with you, as we used to live next to the A14, when my eldest started having her attacks, wasn't diagnosed until she had the full blown attack.

In fact thinking back, she was only about 2 when she had the massive attack in the night

Then we moved to the other end of town well away from any major road.

My yougest who's 6 never had any problems like her sister.

So traffic fumes are one major suspect, probably diesel particles, the other is airbourne dust and cleaning products that my mother in law generated from he OCD cleaning habits.

My youngest did spend as much time with the MIL, as my shift patterns changed, so she stayed with me in our fithly dirty germ ridden house :smt077

[dizzyblonde]

Poor wee fella, Ralph, hope he comes round soon!

We found it happened more in Winter for Dylan, he'd have weeks of chest infections that wouldn't shift. . As soon as summer came it went away. Theres so many factors that can trigger an individual.
This next bit is unbelievable, but I'm pretty certain its what was going on all along, I wasn't going to say anything, but as the issue of fumes etc, I shall share.

A couple of years ago...actually when Pete moved in, he swore he could smell a faint wiff of cigarette smoke in Dylans room(neither of us smoke)
It was only when our next door neighbour moved out(who smoked heavily), and the new ones started having work done, that they found something wrong with the chimney stack between our houses, and somehow, the old gits cig smoke was getting through into his room, through his fireplace!!!!
Obviously in summer all my windows were open and in winter they were shut with the central heating full blast.
I'd never cottoned on to the smell, as Matt smoked outside the back door, as I don't live upstairs, I'd not noticed anything, having a new nose around the house saved my sons lungs. He'd stopped having attacks about a year or so before Pete moved up here, but I honestly think this was the cause. Funny the new neighbours don't smoke in the house, and the smell has magically gone away.

[kellyjo]

I'd agree with you, as we used to live next to the A14, when my eldest started having her attacks, wasn't diagnosed until she had the full blown attack.

In fact thinking back, she was only about 2 when she had the massive attack in the night

Then we moved to the other end of town well away from any major road.

My yougest who's 6 never had any problems like her sister.

So traffic fumes are one major suspect, probably diesel particles, the other is airbourne dust and cleaning products that my mother in law generated from he OCD cleaning habits.

My youngest did spend as much time with the MIL, as my shift patterns changed, so she stayed with me in our fithly dirty germ ridden house :smt077


Statistically, apparently the closer you live to the sea the lower the chance of childhood asthma. Makes sense.

[maviczap]

Statistically, apparently the closer you live to the sea the lower the chance of childhood asthma. Makes sense.

I'd like to live closer than I do (5 minute walk) but I can't afford the Costa Del Felixstowe cliff top house prices. :p