Hi, I hope someone can help me. My daughter is almost 6 and has always had breathing difficulties, but primarily when she was suffering from some type of upper respiratory infection (i.e., she'd get a cold and it would 'go into her lungs' and she'd spend the next 3 weeks coughing up tons of mucus). She was diagnosed with asthma at age 2 but is actually doing much better now--last winter we only had to put her on the nebulizer a couple of times. She is now having gastic problems, however. We are seeing a pediatric GI doc; at first, her blood work came back as positive for celiac disease, but he did a biopsy and that was negative. During the biopsy he discovered a hiatal hernia and gastric erosions. She is being treated for the hernia but no one can give me an explanation for the erosions (precursors to ulcers--they looked pretty bad on the photos), and he seems to be hoping that the hernia treatment (Nexium) will help the erosions. So far, she doesn't seem to be much better on the medicine; she still has a bad tummy ache every few days and now also complains of headache. The thing is, she is of average height and weight (has actually been a tiny bit 'overweight' on a couple of dr. visits), and from what I've read, small stature and failure to gain weight are hallmarks of CF. But she does tire very easily and lately just wants to lay around--no longer interested in activities like soccer, riding her bike, etc. I'm just very frustrated because she seems to just get worse and worse and the docs just want to treat her symptoms rather than get to the bottom of what is causing them. Anyway, sorry to go on and on, but is there any possibility, given her history of lung & GI problems, but normal height and weight, that she could have CF? BTW--no CF in my or my husband's families.
Thanks for any help you can offer!


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Lynn

I suppose that anything is possible. I have heard of people being diagnoised as old as 30 years old. It may make you feel better to have her tested, that way you will know either way.

It'd be a good idea to have her tested, even if just to eliminate a serious possibility that you guys don't have to worry about so much.

Food allergies would be the next thing I would check, but because these GI problems (you say that she used to have the energy to do things before, at least, you insinuate that when you use the word 'lately', so I apologize in advance if I'm wrong) seem to have come on rather suddenly, I would suspect perhaps a kind of bug.

They said they thought she was allergic to gluten and yet the biopsy came back negative for that allergy -- does feeding her rice-based products make her feel better?

Having her checked for other GI problems (even the unlikely ones like diabetes) wouldn't necessarily be a bad idea.