I hope you’ll stick around & hope you find help here.

Wonderful site. Thank you for such reassuring clarity. I suffered with childhood asthma along with five brothers and one sister, and when I say ’suffered’ its not without significance. Every day of every autumn and winter was marked by asthma. I still get a chill every morning that I pull back the curtains to be met by the sight of a thick fog!

My eldest child, now four, had secret symptoms including cough, persistent stomach pain, anxiety, constant colds and infections and very disturbed sleep. Although he was also very allergic as a baby he wasn’t diagnosed until after he was hospitalised with an attackaged three. Last January he saw a specialist and six weeks after being put on Flixotide he had his first uninterrupted night’s sleep in three and a half years. The anxiety and stomach problems reduced and now a nighttime cough means only one thing..Ventolin!

My two year old seemed to have escaped but this summer after a severe reaction to chicken pox, she started to have obvious symtoms particularly coughing, shallow breathing and wheezing for weeks at a time . Since chicken pox she has had one flare up after another and is in the middle of one as I type. She, my son and I all received the swine flu vaccine three weeks ago and all three of us have symptoms (my asthma returned with a vengence after a bout of pneumonia this spring). Do you think there’s a connection here? My daughter has just finished a five day course of steroids and is on antibiotics along with Ventolin and Beclazone (names may be different here in Ireland) and I’m worried about returning for the booster shot, due a few days ago. Do you think the vaccine and flare up are connected and if so, what about the booster? Should I hold off or is a reaction like that confined to the initial contact with the virus only?

Thanks,

Sarah

Nice website! I’m a Respiratory Therapist with asthma…go figure:) I really enjoyed reading through your site ( good content). I’m relatively new to the field, but I’ve been dealing with my asthma for 37 years plus my daughter is asthmatic..darn my gene pool:). I salute you for your efforts to help people deal with children with asthma, it is a whole lifestyle in itself. Keep up the good work. I would like to leave posts to help if I can with people’s questions. Thanks again..Chris.

You didn’t mention if you’re adult-onset or if you’re newly diagnosed, but if you are–I can also tell you that in the beginning, it was easy for me to mistake some of my daughter’s flares for colds. In fact, because I didn’t know enough about asthma when she was very young, I didn’t realize she had other triggers besides illness for awhile.

Either way, my point is I’d keep an eye out for other triggers, just in case—but I hope you don’t find any!