Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Starting Tamiflu


So...quick update...went to the pulmonologist today. (She's at the hospital, so we had to wear masks. Horrible!)

She's sure ENOUGH that Oz has flu that she prescribed Tamiflu. And if he's not better by Thursday, she wants a chest X-ray.

Sigh.

He seemed more energetic today, but still not eating much (a little Kraft macaroni and cheese at dinner, that's about it)... but still running around 102 and looking pretty poo-ey.

I'll keep ya posted.

Monday, June 29, 2009

Oz might have the flu

MIGHT have the flu.

After a mild flare yesterday, my monkey woke up with 102 - and ran that fever all day long. He didn't complain of a sore throat, but did complain that his legs hurt and his head hurt, and occasionally that his stomach hurt. He could barely keep his eyes open all day.

At daycare, of the 70 kids or so enrolled, an alleged 23 were absent. A few tested positive for strep, a few had suspected flu cases. The Board of Health called while I was there dropping Ig off.

I took Oz to the doctor, and after waiting an hour, he tested negative for strep and negative for flu...HOWEVER, the rapid flu test has a 25% false negative rate. The doctor thought his symptoms looked enough like the flu that she's not allowing him to return to daycare until Monday. (And that's the date she put on the note he needs to go back!)

She also wants me to call the PP to see if they want him to go on Tamiflu, before the final flu test comes back from the lab.

I'll one-up them on that: I'll take him to the PP. Given his history of pneumonia, I think I want him to be seen. Especially the way he's coughing right now!


Thursday, June 25, 2009

Perioral Dermatitis - from Comments

Got this comment from Lauren about Perioral Dermatitis:

Aimee, I found your site while looking for a possible link between discontinuing Flovent and my son's rash around his mouth appearing a day later. Your blog entry and the comments by others were the only information I could find about perioral dermatitis caused by flovent or stopping flovent. Have you had any more experiences with it since your post?

The pediatrician and the allergist both had never experienced anything like it. He got a topical antibiotic cream and I suspected it wouldn't work after reading your blog, but gave the doctor the benefit of the doubt. It actually mostly cleared up with the cream, but then rebounded quickly as soon as he stopped using it. He's now back to using the cream plus on an oral antibiotic. I'm wondering if we should be reporting this to the drug company (GSK) since it seems to be an undocumented side effect that doctors have no idea about.

So, yeah - periorial dermatitis can DEFINITELY be caused by Flovent, or any inhaled steroid. I'm surprised that more pulmonologists don't talk about it!! #1 son had it so bad, it was terrible. It made him so sad - it looked like had terrible acne. And we had to go to several doctors before received an accurate diagnosis and treatment. One doctor referred to it as "steroid acne," which I think is accurate - but didn't prescribe a strong enough treatment.

Ultimately, it required a three-week course of SERIOUS oral antibiotics and a topical antibiotic gel. It's pretty serious stuff.

Lauren - I'm in support of your approaching GSK with this one. It should be listed as a side effect.

Thanks for bringing the topic back up. I'm sure there are plenty of other moms out there who could use this info

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

For Erica: Yes to Flovent!

Got this via comments:


hi, I have a 2 year old that was recently diagnosed with asthma They put her on pulmicort and she does fine with it, my problem is she HATES to sit there and take the medicine. It seems to take forever!!! So my doctor said I could put her on flovent and take it through the inhaler, I am kinda scared about switching her. I hate the fact that she has to take medicine anyway, but switching makes me nervous. Have you ever used it? What do you think?? Thanks so much for your time, Erica


Flovent is essentially the same medication as Pulmicort, but it's delivered via an Metered Dose Inhaler (MDI) instead of a nubulizer. You'll need a spacer, like Vortex or an Aerochamber, but it's easy to use and takes about fifteen seconds to administer!

One tip: Flovent can cause thrush, so we always do our meds immediately before brushing our teeth. It's just become part of the AM/PM routine at my house, and compliance is not even an issue. (Talking with the mask on is....)

I'm sure you'll do really well with the switch. Good luck, Erica!