My eldest son who is now nine years old was diagnosed with Asthma when he was five. He had just started primary school and was doing well when he came down with what I took for a normal cold.
Always getting the cold(or so I thought)
So I kept him off school for a few days and got him a cough bottle, after a few days he was fine, until about two weeks later, when he was sick again, this continued for about six weeks, I put it down to the cold weather, then two weeks later he was sick again.
*The doctor
So I took him to the doctor and explained what was going on, he basically said I was being over protective and that my son had just got a simple cold and I had nothing to worry about. Everything continued much the same, my son always seemed to have the cold and he missed a lot of time off school.
*First hospital visit
*Another two weeks or so passed and my son was down with the cold again, only this time he was much worse, he lay on the seetee, he would`nt eat and was complaining of a sore chest, I put my hand on his chest and his heart rate was going extremely fast, so I took him straight to hospital and they put him on a nebuliser to help him breath easier(this is basically like oxygen) and they kept in for a few days.
First stay in hospital
They continued to give him these Nebulisers every two hours, through out the day and night, but when we asked what was wrong with him, they never really give us a straight answer, although they let him home after about three days, they did`nt actually tell us what was wrong with him.
*Second visit to hospital
We hoped things would improve, but they did`nt, he just kept getting the cold, The same thing happened with his heart rate, so again we went to the hospital and they carried out the same process as before and he was kept in again.
Speaking to the doctor
At this stage I had thought maybe he had Asthma but I was`nt sure, The medication was the same as before and eventually we got to speak to the doctor, I mentioned the idea of Asthma, but he said that my son was to young to diagnose(which is nonsense)
Third visit to hospital
It wasnt until the third visit to hospital that they finally diagnosed him with having Asthma, at this stage they give me two inhalers which were Beclazone and Salbutamol.
What these Inhalers are for
Beclazone is a preventer it is a steroid based medication and is brown in colour, this inhaler is to help to stop the tubes in the lungs for becoming red and swollen.
Salbutamol is a reliever and is blue in colour, this inhaler opens up the tubes in the lungs so therefore breathing is made easier.
The hospital give us these inhalers and sent us home with very little other information.
Symptoms restarting
Everything was great for a while but the same symptoms started up again, and my son ended up in hospital again, it turned out that the medication was`nt working for him, so they changed his medication to Seretide(purple) and the Asmasal inhalers(white) and they also put him on a steriod based tablet. These inhalers are a bit stronger than the other ones and are working great.
*Learning as we went
For the first few months when my son was diagnosed with Asthma, we did`nt really no much about the illness, we were basically learning as we went along until we spoke to the school nurse(who just happened to be an Asthmatic Nurse), she explained what actually happens to Asthmatics.
The way she explained it to us was that the tubes from an Asthmatic person have trigger factors that can irritate them which in turn causes them to swell and become red, which therefore causes the difficulty in breathing.
Some Triggers
Cold/Flu
Exercise
dust mite
Cigarette smoke
Changes in Weather
Pollen
Animals
Sprays(perfume, polish etc)
Paint
These are some of the triggers that can be a problem for Asthmatics, Different factors will be a problem for different suffers.
*She also give us advice on how we can help our son with his illness.
Smoke outside
damp dust followed by dry dusting
hoover floors, soft furnishings and mattresses
wash bedlinen and cuddly toys at 60 degrees
With the advice from the school nurse we found it a lot easier to understand Asthma and needles to say the information that she give us was really useful.
So far the purple and white inhalers have worked well for my son and his Asthma is well controlled with these inhalers, although he has had to go to the hospital on the odd occassion but he has`nt had to stay in.