Monday, July 18, 2005

To My Anonymous Commenter - Please Be Careful!

Thanks so much for your comment last week -- but I have to post a reply.

I'm so happy that reflexology is working so well for your son, but please, please, please - continue to see a pediatric pulmonlogist.

Asthma is a tricky, tricky illness, and not one to be taken lightly.

As the daughter of a pharmacist, I'm particularly cautious about overmedicating my kids. I question every prescription (to the great dismay of my doctors), and they're well aware of the fact that I often will not fill the scripts they give me for antibiotics. Not right away anyway.

But I've learned not to mess around with asthma. Despite the possible negative effects of inhaled corticosteroids and albuterol, I know that these are the drugs that help my little boy breathe.

This child is the absolute love of my life, and I've seen him suffer too much. I've seen him hooked up to a nasal canula with oxygen being pumped into his lungs, and it's something I never, ever want to have to see again.

I'm aware that Flovent and/or Pulimicort could stunt his growth. I know Albuterol makes him cranky and flighty, that Orapred makes him unbearable, as do Combivent and DuoNeb. (But really, I'd rather he be short than struggling to breathe, if it has to be a choice.)

But I also know that Flovent and Pulmicort have kept him out of the ER many, many times. That Albuterol has helped us prevent what could have been a very serious attack. That Orapred has sidetracked hospitalization from pneumonia. And that Combivent and DuoNeb may have actually saved his life.

That said, you can see why I don't mess around. I've had the good fortune to find a pediatric pulmonologist I trust as well as I trust my best friend. She understands my reluctance to increase (and at times, decrease) the drugs on his action plan. She supports my efforts to try non-medical, non-traditional alternatives to medications -- while continuing his prescribed maintenance medications. I respect that she wants my baby to have normal childhood. We have a great relationship.

I hope you find the same. Find a doctor who's open to your desire to ultimately get your son off medication.

But please, please, stay in touch with your doctor and keep your son on his maintenance meds until your doctor advises you that it's okay to change routines.

I don't work for the drug companies -- I'm just speaking from my heart and my experience.

Best of luck to you both.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for your insight also. It sounds to me like you have been through a whole lot more than I have (they still are not sure if my son has asthma or not or if he just got a few colds right after the other and had wheezing each time just because he was so young). I have two other children (3 and 5) who are both in school, so they picked up some colds and brought them home to the baby.

If my son continues to wheeze, I would certainly consider meds again, but I saw such an incredible turnaround after 1 treatment of reflexology than after two months of the drugs! I asked the reflexologist if asthma was something that could be helped with reflexology and she said it certainly is - not saying that it would completely eliminate the problem but possibly make it not quite so severe.

I don't have any examples of anyone being cured of asthma through reflexology, but I do know someone who suffered for years with seizures and nothing would help - she started to see the reflexologist and rarely suffers from seizures anymore! Just a thought that maybe it could work in conjunction with the other meds your son is on (maybe he wouldn't have to take them as often or as much).

I completely understand about doing anything to help your son breathe, when my son was having trouble, I would have given him my lungs if I could have. I guess that's why when I hear stories of other children suffering and having trouble breathing I feel the need to tell them how incredibly my son was helped through alternative medicine.

p.s. - I see that you are from the burbs in nj, grew up there myself - what a beautiful place!