Most of the regular readers of this Blog would know of our recent adventures with Jahan's health. Further to Jahan's previous hospital visit, we had another drama this week.
On Tuesday, Jahan appeared to have come down with a cough and cold. We held him back from daycare, and in the afternoon I took him to the GP to attend to the wheeze he had subsequently developed. The GP promptly advised me to hightail it to the nearest hospital emergency dept as Jahan was clearly having serious breathing difficulties. (I have since learned to recognise the symptoms of these aforementioned "serious breathing difficulties" and will certainly not be spending half a day ignoring them in future). After being poked and prodded, tested and intubated, Jahan was admitted overnight to Emergency care. He was given nebulisers and oxygen throughout the night.
On Wednesday morning, the paediatrician diagnosed him with viral asthma. (A diagnosis of asthma is rarely made in children under 14 months. However in this case, with such typical symptoms and two respiratory incidences in such close succession, it was apparent that Jahan was prone to virally-induced asthma.) As difficult as this news was to bare, it came as some relief - because with a concrete diagnosis, comes some hope of effective treatment.
Despite effectively responding to ventolin, oral steroids and oxygen, Jahan's sat.O2 levels did not stabilise enough for him to be discharged. He was moved to the Paeds ward and was kept another night. During this time, his satO2 levels fluctuated between 98% ("normal resting") and 86% ("critical" in that continued exposure to this level of O2 could result in brain damage or worse).
By Thursday afternoon, Jahan's breathing was stable enough for him to be discharged. However, we left the hospital equipped with a ventolin puffer and spacer cartridge, and were told to continue his asthma treatment for some days. We were also told that the next time he gets any hint of coming down with a cold, we are to administer the ventolin straight away to prevent an attack.
There are so many questions we can ask about asthma, genetic disposition and ongoing implications. I wonder whether Jahan's wheel and flare response is related in any way? We have a follow up visit with the Paediatrician in two weeks - we'll see what he says.
Posted by Dayan at September 17, 2004 07:41 PM