Monday, March 14, 2011

New Specialist; PFT Log

So... we started seeing an asthma and allergy specialist last week for Ozzy. We love our pulmonologist, but she has two kids now, and her hours are very limited. Combine that with the fact that she's based at a hospital 20 minutes away (pay for parking, wait forever, etc.) the new local specialist is a winner.

We saw him for the first time this past week, since we were running out of our Flovent 110, and he was very thorough. I was interviewed, Oz was examined, which I expected - but he also did scratch tests and spirometry on the first visit. He also gave us a peak flow meter, and on that first day, Oz blew a 280.

Ozzy's meds were changed slightly, due to the fact that (a) he's done really well this winter and (b) this doctor doesn't like using spacers and masks - he thinks the kids don't get enough medication this way. So Oz was switched to a Flovent 100 discus (half the dose, yea!!) and a MaxAir instant inhaler. He seems to do really well with the new "delivery systems." I'm happy to not have to shell out for or clean spacers, myself!

Of course he got sick over the weekend and started flaring. The cough isn't bad, but it's a cough, and his only other symptom is fever. (B also has a fever with no other symptoms.)

On Saturday, I decided to check peak flow. It was 200. I gave him the MaxAir, and it went up to 225.

Today, with 102 fever, I checked again. He's barely hitting 200.

I guess I'll check him again later, and we'll see how he is. This meter doesn't have "zones," but he's down by a good 25 percent - assuming 280 was a good number for him. He only had the one test when he was healthy.

Probably worth a call to check in.

7 comments:

Gene said...

We learned the hard way about mold
Our son wanted to move his bedroom downstairs
So we gave him our bedroom
within a couple of days he couldn't breath and his asthma symptoms got bad
Long story short he's now sleeping on a recliner in the living room

Please help us move

http://charityconnection.webs.com/

Gene Davis
manypriests@gmail.com

Jacque said...

I hope Ozzy is feeling better! I'm actually working on a campaign right now to increase awareness and understanding of asthma, and I'd love to have your support. We're asking bloggers like yourself to share resources and information to help people with asthma. If you're interested, email me at myers_jacque@bah.com and I'll follow up with more info. You can get an idea of what I'm talking about on my Twitter account (http://twitter.com/jacquehealth).

Maria said...

How are you finding the new specialist? I seem to be in the same boat. Mine is cutting back her hours for family reasons. I understand that, being a mom but I hate trying to find new doctors.

My son, bless him, just gets on with it.

Good Days said...

I hope Ozzy is feeling bette! I work with Good Days from Chronic Disease Fund, and it is our goal to assist chronic disease sufferers in gaining the treatment they need. By supporting our organization, you could help these patients too! http://www.gooddaysfromcdf.org/

Anonymous said...

Hello,

We at Children's Mercy Family Health Partners have a library of english and spanish videos dealing with asthma that we would like you to know about. Feel free to embed them at your site if you like. You can find them at www.youtube.com/cmfhp1 or www.youtube.com/cmfhpspanish.

Thanks,

Chris Beurman
Community Relations Manager
Children's Mercy Family Health Partners

Fransisca said...

Hi, my first time visiting your blog. How nice to read the article on this blog because I also have allergies.

c5 @ battlingasthma.info said...

Asthma for an adult is not a good feeling. The more if the patient is a kid. :(