Asthma Sucks!

I went to bed late last night. This time I didn't get to sleep straightaway. Instead I was a wake calming a scared, crying and wheezing little boy. Asthma sucks!

For everyone who has followed the blog over the last year then you would know that I have had some awful night’s with James, where we both have spent the evenings in the hospital waiting to see what would happen.

But that wasn’t the first time.

At 5 and 10 months old James was admitted with bronchitis; I have never been so scared in my life. 

In some ways the co-parenting journey started there for his Mum and I. We were in it as a team together; although in different ways.

James was in hospital struggling and his Mum stayed by his side. I have to admit that in that time I rarely went to see James. I was focused on being with William and, in truth, I found it difficult to see James in the position he was in; despite my own health problems I found his vulnerability difficult to swallow.  Instead we tried to keep as much routine going with William. He was just under 3 years old and although he was young you could tell that he was worried; so I took that as my job and focused on him and saw James when I could get support from family.

Luckily he's a little fighter and his smiles were back again. 

4 years later he is having a response between every 2-3 weeks since the beginning of October. His breathing becomes shallow and sharp. You can hear his chest rattle with every breath and it is heart-breaking; then off to the hospital we go.

It’s worse because James is 4 years old.

Why does this make it worse?

Well, honestly, it’s because he's too young to be diagnosed with Asthma.

At the moment every time James is admitted to the hospital they tell us he has had an asthmatic response; this will be his 6th asthmatic response this year.

Asthma is difficult to diagnose when the child is aged between 0 – 5. According to Doctors, as well as the NHS, it's hard to tell whether a child has asthma or another childhood condition. This is because the symptoms of asthma also occur with other conditions at a young age.

There is also find the fact that many young children who wheeze when they get colds or respiratory infections don't go on to have asthma after they're 6 years old.

For example: A child may wheeze because he or she has small airways that become even narrower during colds or respiratory infections. The airways grow as the child grows older, so wheezing no longer occurs when the child gets colds.

Normally, Doctor’s will do a variety of test to tell:

A Doctor will use a test called spirometry to check how the child’s lungs are working; this test measures how much air you can breathe in and out.

They will then treat the child with medicine and see how and if it helps with lung function. Subsequently if the results are lower than normal and improve with the medicine, and if the medical history shows a pattern of asthma symptoms, then diagnosis will likely be asthma.

See, for me, this is all good and I can understand to some extent why they leave it until 5 years old to rule out other problems. However, saying that I am the one that listens and watches my child’s breathing.

James is the cheeky chap; he always has been. I have always said that out of the two boy’s James was born to test every ounce of me as a parent; he is in to anything and everything and will stand there and test every boundary that is presented to him.

He is my livewire and he knows it!

Then there is the James that I was listening to last night. This is my baby boy: fragile, struggling and weak. I hate it!

I know that this and previous times have all just been the start of his journey with Asthma; something that, although they won’t completely diagnose, has been suggested is the route to this.

Over the years both his Mum and I have had are turns at being at his bedside doing what we can, monitoring his breathing, like last night, and just stick by him; hospital or home.

Their Mum and I have got a good arrangement when it happens and we seem to tag team one of the Boys each so we can focus on stability of the other.

The pump James has been given in the meantime does help a little but it doesn’t seem to really support him long term; which I am guessing is to do with the dosage.  This coupled with the steroids they give him short term; they do seem to take the edge of a bit but only until they run out. I just wish that we could have a clear diagnosis now and get exactly what he needs.

I just hope, for now, that he has fewer asthmatic responses this year.