Monday, October 13, 2008

Through a fog

Oliver slept better after the inhaler and medicine, though he still shouted from his semi-slumbers without ever waking up fully. I feel like I spent the entire night listening for him. When I woke I was still "on alert". But now I'm just tired, as if a goldfish bowl is round my head.

Hayley reports that this morning he has not been entirely himself, a bit emotional, but he seems OK and not struggling like yesterday.

We are doubting the high dosage of salbutamol recommended by the doctor though: up to 8 puffs at a time. We are going to see our own GP about it and in the meantime stay down at 2 at a time (4 at bedtime) and monitor him, giving more if needed. This comes on the back of comments from the pharmacist who was concerned at administering such large "uncontrolled" doses.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Here's my none medical take on it.

As you know we've had similar problems with our kids being vulnerable to chest infections. Over the last 12 months Evan has been in hospital overnight with breathing problems around five times.

It's become so common that I've even stopped blogging about it.

Don't worry about the 8 puffs of the blue inhaler, you can't overdose on it and sometimes that's what's needed to clear the pipes a bit. We don't go to A&E/the emergency doctors unless he's had two lots of eight within about half an hour and he still hasn't cleared up. That's the advice we've been given by about five different doctors so I'm pretty happy with it. We also have a graded concern list type thing. It goes like this, from low concern to high concern:

Breathing fast
Breathing fast and using his stomach to help him breath
Seeing his ribs when he breaths in
and finally the skin around the collarbone going in when he breaths.

That last one sees us go to A&E, as does the ribs thing if he doesn't respond to the inhaler.

They have also prescribed Evan a brown inhaler. So far we have resisted giving him this on a regular basis as one of the side effects is growth stunting in young children. They say it is ok in low doses but I'd rather not risk it.

We don't think he is asthmatic, nor does the GP, he is just prone to getting a viral wheeze.

Hope Oliver feels better soon.

Steve said...

Thanks Dan.

Someone mentioned the brown inhaler acting as a control for the blue one...? Anyway he hasn't got that one yet.

Off topic: I emailed you about moving to wordpress and any recommended UK host, but got no reply. Perhaps I don't have up-to-date email for you?

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