Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Ear Infection with No Asthma Attack. Phew.

//okay, just a *minor* asthma attack//

Just a quick update -- I took Oz to the doctor Saturday, and he had a pretty bad ear infection. I was concerned because he was REALLY congested and coughing a lot. Plus, paranoid as I am (hello, whole blog dedicated to my kids' asthma!) I couldn't help but remember that he did develop an ear infection when he had RSV in November.

So, PS, the weekend utterly sucked. He was so miserable Sunday, I think I would have thrown myself under a bus if I thought it would make him feel better! He was spiking fevers, his ear obviously killed, and he was just crusted with snot. (Fortunately for him, he's actually cute enough to pull off that crusty snot look. Kidding.)

But of course, by Monday, when I needed to work from home (huge amounts of work to do, too) he was just about fine, and as high-energy and cranky as any two-year-old in the world. Welcome to my world. But at least he was feeling better!

I did have him on a three-day course of Zithro, as well as DuoNeb/Albuterol. It all seemed to work. He's still a bit cranky, but hey -- isn't that what the terrible twos are all about?

Saturday, March 25, 2006

My rant: What's with the Asthma Epidemic? Flouride? Vitamin D?

From a recent email I sent to the A-P list:

I'm not saying all kids got asthma from their drinking water. The vitamin D theory didn't work for me either.

Certainly not ALL asthma is caused by fluoridated water...asthma definitely predates treating public water! Genetics, possibly more than any other factor, will definitely predetermine which kids get it and which don't. But the number of kids with asthma has definitely skyrocketed in recent generations, and I'm always poking around to figure out why that is.

Pollution, for sure, is a factor, too, but I don't know that it's THE cause. I mean, I'm 34. I had exactly one friend with asthma in school. Now that I'm a parent in the same town, almost everyone I know has a nebulizer for their kids! Can the pollution have become that toxic in the last 30 years?? (Yes, diagnostics are different/better now, but I don't think it's the only reason!)

What changed? Was it just the environment? Or was it something we DID to the environment? Was it the vaccines we gave our kids, or something we did or didn't do (or take) while pregnant? Something they're using to treat road surfaces??

If you look at the numbers of kids with asthma, with autism, with life-threatening peanut allergies....all of these things (and other conditions) have become way too prevalent -- only very recently. And I just find it hard that this is simply evolution at work. Something, or perhaps a combination of things, has to have caused it.

I'm not a paranoid consipiracy theorist. The numbers are just too crazy to dismiss.

Forgive the rant!

Friday, March 24, 2006

Asthma related to Maternal Vitamin D intake?

Look at this.

SATURDAY, March 4 (HealthDay News) -- The link between maternal health and
childhood asthma is becoming clearer.
Researchers presenting new studies at
the annual meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology in
Miami Beach have recorded associations between maternal nutrition and stress
with asthma in children.
One study found that expectant mothers who take
higher amounts of vitamin D may decrease their child's risk for asthma.
Vitamin D deficiency is common in areas where asthma is also widespread,
raising the suspicion that the two are linked, said Dr. Carlos Camargo, senior
author of the study and an associate professor of medicine and epidemiology at
Harvard Medical School in Boston.

I was just talking to a friend the other day who thought fluoridated water was the reason for the asthma epidemic. Definitely a new theory. Perhaps a kooky one, but I'll do some research!

Sick Boys

Just and update -- both of the older boys have nasty runny noses and coughs. Oz (#2 son) was up crying twice on Wednesday.

Both are on albuterol 3X daily. Maybe I should be a little more aggressive than that.

Let's just hope the baby stays healthy.

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Asthma Journal - So bummed to be posting this!

Before I forget the real reason I ever started this blog:

#1 Son: Gooky green stuff in nose started on Sunday. Coughing started today (Wednesday). Coughing is very infrequent, but I started albuterol because our action plan says to "at first sign of a cold."

#2 Son: Gooky green stuff today, but not enough to start albuterol.

All winter long, I've felt just a little too lucky as far as their health...like I've been waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Hopefully, that's not what this is. (I know. I get so melodramatic when they start coughing!)

Saturday, March 18, 2006

About that rash -- I think it's from the Flovent!

So #1 son had that rash on his face for ages. I called the pediatrician about it a few times, and finally I spoke to a nurse. She said she thought it looked fungal.

"Fungal?" I said. How could he get a fungal rash on his FACE??? She said, "Well, it could be from a number of things," and rattled of a list. When she mentioned thrush, the lightbulb popped on.

"Thrush," I said. "Can't Flovent cause thrush?" "Yes," she said.

And while Bryn didn't have the white tongue usually associated with thrush, this was the only explanation that seemed to make sense.

The rash was a little resistant to Lotrimin cream, but ultimately, it did work! Mystery solved!

It's also a hint that I probably need some new spacers!

The Flovent Shortage

I just got a letter from ExpressScripts, our prescription mail order house, that they can't fill Oz's Flovent prescription. It's on backorder!

They actually sent the script back, which says to me that this is probably going on for a while.

Our pulmo warned me this could happen back in December/January. When the local pharmacist was able to fill the Rx I didn't think it would be a problem. And I certainly didn't think it would be a problem so many months later!!

Weird isn't it? Why would there be a Flovent shortage? Is it just the Flovent 440, or are the 110 and 220 in short supply as well? Can I give him one shot of 110 twice a day or a single puff of 220 daily instead?? Is there a Qvar shortage, too??

The worst part is paying the $40 co-pay for one MDI instead of paying $40 for three, which is what I'd pay if Express-Scripts was filling it....