SCARED-please help, 3 year old asthma out of control?

[babiespalace]

Melanie isn't doing too well tonight. She is wheezing. I am giving her xopenex now and hopefully it will help. She is breathing weird.

CT scan came back today and the asthma doc called me. Her CT scan showed changes in her sinus and adnoid cavity. I don't understand that since her adnoids came back. Anyways he said she has a severe bacterial infection. I am guessing in her sinuses. So-all of the infections since October have been secondary infections from this. That is why she isn't getting better. I started Omnicef today-and I hope it is going to work. He said it was pretty strong and he is going to keep her on it for a month. I am not sure what will happen if it doesn't work.

He came up with rhinosinusitis and he said allergies are the trigger, but I don't know how he knows when they haven't found any allergies. He said we may not find the allergy. I asked if we could test for chemicals and he said there was no way to test for them. I pray this works. I am so happy we finally are getting somewhere. And if it wasn't for you guys my little baby would still be sick and no one really doing anything!!! Thank you guys so much-

[BYHOPE1113]

Hi Shelly,

I'm online tonight if you need anything. I am so glad you got the CT. It sounds like the way he says he see's changes in the adnoid cavity is that he is seing they are gone but that's just a guess. At least you've got down to the diagnosis of sinusitus. However I'm sorry to here Melanie isn't doing well tonight.

What exactly do you mean she's breathing funny. Have you heard the term retraction? Is that what she's doing? Retraction is when you can look at her tummy and see it basically caving in and out because she is gasping for breaths. You can also normally see it in the front of the neck too. If this is what you mean then don't wait to long before you take her to the ER, especially if she doesn't respond to the Xopenex. Have they ever given you a prescription for Atrovent or Ipatropium Bromide. Now is the classic case time to use it along with the Atrovent. With Karly it really helped pull her out of an attack a few times. It didn't work every time but sometimes it did. Atrovent is the brand name and ipatropium Bromide is the Generic name.


I'll keep my computer on and check back in a little bit to see if I can help.

Kim

[celtic_mom]

Hi Shelly, I've been out of town for a while, I'm so glad they are finally getting to the bottom of this. My sinusitis was caused by back to back infections. My ENT told me this because I have no real severe allergies. You are absolutely right - all the repeated infections are caused because the initial infection was never treated long enough to get rid of it. My concern would be that now medicine alone would not be able to fix the problem. Did you find a new ENT? If the sinusitis can't be cleared with meds, make sure you get her to a new ENT. The old one was an idiot.

As for the eyes, it's all connected. Have you ever seen those 'stupid people tricks' where people snort milk and then have it come out their eyes? That's because you do have sinuses that are connected to your eye ducts. Her sinuses were just so bad that they started to affect her eyes. Same thing with her lungs (and mine).

If she isn't improving in a few days, you need to call and have her antibiotics changed. I had to do that a couple of times. Once when I was put on Kenex(?) it did nothing for me. Apparently it only works on gram negative bugs and mine is gram positive (or visa versa). I'm on Levaquin (again) now and I'm staying until surgery. I told my ENT that I'm not going off again until he drills some holes - I'm over it. Also, I discovered that taking sudaphed 3 x a day and some guaifenisen (sp), an expectorant, twice a day (morning and before bed) and it has really helped me with the congestion. I'd ask about how much was safe to give Melanie and give it shot.

P.S. My first idiot ENT told me decongestants wouldn't help me, he was wrong, food for thought.

[BYHOPE1113]

Shelly another thought I had last night so here goes:

The infection could be fungal and not bacterial. They really have no way of telling that by looking at a CT. I have mentioned before a culture that was done on Karly, that was where they tested the mucuous in K's sinus to see what it really was. That is when they ruled out a fungal infection and verified that although the infection was bacterial it was resistant to the most common antibiotics because she had been on so many. The bacteria was penicillian resistant. The next drug they normally would have put her on was Clyndimician but it was resistant to that as well. The only drugs that would kill the bacteria were very strong drugs not recommended for children. Levaquin, Vancomycin and a couple of others. All of the doctors said they would not put K on those because they had not been tested in children. They were very effective for adults but a big no no for kids at this point in time. There was one drug that was in the Levaquin family called Cipro that is commonly used with children who have Cystic Fibrosis, that our Pulmonary doctor was willing to try because she used it regularly with her CF patients and had lots of experience with it. Cipro floxin is the technical name I think.

Cipro really helped Karly. She took it for four weeks and that was about 3 for 4 months ago. Since then she has only been on antibiotics one other time. That's pretty good for Karly.

The bottom line is if you don't see an improvement in Melanie, tell the doctors you want a culture so they can quit guessing at what they are dealing with and find out for certain what the bacteria is and what medicine will kill it. Don't forget to ask about the possibility of the infection being fungal. From what I understand if it is fungal then you have to treat it totally different with an anti-fungal medicine not an antibiotic.

[babiespalace]

What I heard last night was stridor after the second treatment-she cleared up. I am not sure exactly about retractions. She always looks like she breaths funny to me-I gueess cause I am always scared. I was reading and this can be due to infection. She was on atrovent last year and her old goofy asthma doc wouldn't prescribe it again. Honestly I forgot all about it and will mention it to the asthma doctor-so we can have some just in case.

When I say she is breathing funny. I mean the rate is good, but the way she is breathing is weird. She will take a couple normal breaths-then I couple fast and keep repeating. Almost like her lungs are sticking or something. Or I guess it could be from aspirating her drainage. I always keep her proped.

I do have her on sudafed twice aday and it really isn't helping much. She got the second dose of antibiotics today so hopefully tonight will be better.

I do have another ENT but haven't schedualed her to go see him. When should I. Should I wait to see if the antibiotic is going to work. I am still really mad at that last ENT and he wanted to rip her toncills out. What is wrong with doctors.

I am also mad because I asked him to do a culture and CT and he said no she didn't have any sinus problems.

I guess we'll see how the next couple days go.

I owe so much to you two. Thank you again!!!!!!!