Teen Daughter coughing for 2 months noone has an answer - Open to All Other Health Topics Message Board

momworried · 11-27-2002, 09:24 PM

For 2 months she has been coughing very bad tot he point of throwing up. No infections, No nothing, blood work and chest xrays say nothing. This is a typically healthy kid who does not drink smoke or do drugs. She is active (was Active) She has been on pumilcort,subutimol,axithromax, and another antibiotic, Not much is making a difference. We put her on a multi vitamin from USANA called body rox for teens on Friday. She got nose bleeds and was throwing up on saturday and monday. TOday she was freezing so i took her to the doc she is in the hospital up and down moods and illnesses one time she is cool then fevered and drowsy. Any ideas?? We will be seeing a specialist next week finally.

Tangle · 11-28-2002, 12:31 AM

I have had similar symptoms from fiberglass masks and air filters. It may be an allergic reaction to something in the home or school. Consider evaluating your home air quality. If she is using toxic perfume or bath/body products, consider discontinuing those products and see if she responds positively. There are some good natural hygiene products at your health-food store. The chronic cough admitts "something" pertaining to air.

Hope this helps.

Jay Tor · 11-30-2002, 03:42 PM

Pulmicort is an asthma med using a high powered "turbohaler" drug delivery device. Have any of the doctors checked up on a possible connection to this?

Here's some reliable information:
[url="http://search.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/query?DISAMBIGUATION=true&FUNCTION=searc h&PARAMETER=pulmicort&SHOWTOPICS=0&x=32& y=9"]http://search.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/query?DISAMBIGU ATION=true&FUNCTION=search&PARAMETER=pul micort&SHOWTOPICS=0&x=32&y=9[/url]

The reason I ask is because:

1 - ALL asthma medications are immune-suppressants. this means that she is immune-compromised. This means that she is much more susceptible to infections. Plus, considering that the tissues that are getting the biggest dose are her airway and lungs, a respiratory infection, tissue damage and/or inability [due to immune-suppression] of damaged tissue to quickly and/or correctly repair itself are all very likely.

2- Long-term use of immune suppressants causes many of the symptoms you described, including COPD [chronic obstructive pulmonary disease]. This is a serious condition that is mentioned at the link posted above.

3- Up and down [labile] moods, or mood swings are a common symptom of glucocorticosteroid overdose.

4- If she's been using too much of this med, there's also a good chance that she might have some diabetes-like symptoms. This means that her diet has to be monitored and/or changed - usually this means fewer white carbs but more protein and colorful produce. Long term glucocorticosteroid use also interferes with bone metabolism, so her bones may become more fragile and her rate of growth may slow down or even stop.

5- Lastly, check for drug/drug and food/drug interactions. She's taking quite a few meds and it's not uncommon for meds to interact. Also, some foods interact with meds - look up "the grapefruit effect" on a drug interaction site, preferably a site that uses multum data.

Good luck and keep us posted,
Jay

[This message has been edited by Jay Tor (edited 11-30-2002).]

NancyH · 11-30-2002, 07:50 PM

If there were no infection why did they give her antibiotics? That is a big No No to do that. If she has a virus and they give antibiotics it could put her body in real bad way. Has anyone checked for asthma? Is that why they gave her pulmicort? Having a reaction to that would depend on how long she had been using it and how often. Why didn't they just put her on a good narcotic cough suppressant while looking into the cause of it to begin with? Have they checked for TB? Did they check Vit B12 deficiency, it is special request otherwise they seldom check that level? I'd get a hold of the Dr and ask some very important questions, why the antibiotics without infection? Do they suspect allergic asthma, TB, lead poisoning, etc,these symptoms can be from a host of many conditions. If you are seeing a specialist then what kind of specialist, pulmonary, cardiac, gastroenterologist etc? How old is your daughter? They may suspect something but it doesn't mean they freely offer this information to you unless you really insist. I'd start getting answers from someone!

momworried · 11-30-2002, 09:48 PM

Thank u to those who responded. She is getting better but has been in th ehospital since wednseday night. She did however get into her specialist a respirologist who does not like palmicort or the other meds she was on. He says this time it was pnemonia and that she is not asthmatic. So she has been on 2 intravenous antibiotics and is on the mend. He will i assume look more into why she has been sick for the 2 months. We are also cleaning up the mould in her room and putting in a laminant flooring. SO hopefully we are on the right track and she will be back to normal soon -- well as normal as a almost 15 year old girl can be lol thanks again and I will be looking more inot the comments when we have time. I am concerned about the meds making her sicker.