Re: Asthma Diagnosis

[Guest guest]

My son was treated for severe asthma for 9 1/2 years. He was on albuterol and

a prescription cough suppressant Hycotuss. They never did a CT scan just

diagnosed him in the office. Since diagnoses his CF doctors say that it is

possible that he also has asthma but have done no tests that I know of.

Tina Mom to Christian 12 yowcf

[Guest guest]

Tracey,

My daughter was diagnosed with asthma before she was ever diagnosed with CF.

In our case, seems to have more trouble with the asthma. She has

always been on medication daily until about a year ago and because it was a

low dose and she was doing so well the doctors took her off of it. Also it

was a medication that had other side effects. By May she was having

problems breathing and wheezing. The doctor put her in the hospital the end

of June for a tuneup because her pft's were down and she kept running a low

grade temperature off and on. Seemed like more on than off. The doctors

ran all kinds of blood work and cat scans and such along with iv

antibiotics. Her bronchial tubes were impacted. With extra vest treatments

and antibiotics her pfts returned to what they were before. I doctor says

that generally in cf when the pft's go down and continue to drop that the

lung involvement is usually cf related. When the pft's go down and then

after treatment with steroids or antibiotics and such they go back up to

where they were or higher he believes that it is usually asthma related

because asthma does not cause scarring. This is what I am told. I am sure

there are others on the list that are smarter than I am.

Tina W., mother of , 18yo wcf

Asthma Diagnosis

Hi Everyone,

I'm still fairly new to this group, but I have a question if anyone

can help. I've seen a few people talking about asthma. My daughter,

who will be three in March, was diagnosed in May of 2003 with CF.

Our first doctor, when we were living in Pennsylvania, never

mentioned asthma to us at all. When we moved to Virginia and started

at our new CF clinic, the doctor did a CAT scan to fully check out

Sydney and see how she looks on the inside, I guess just to check out

her lungs. They said they saw " streaking " on her lungs which they

told me is a sign of asthma. We do have a strong family history of

asthma, so I just assumed that it sounds right, so she probably has

it too. Since then, I was telling my friend about it, who is a

respiratory therapist, and he said that he didn't think it was

possible to diagnose asthma on a CAT scan. Sydney has never had

an " asthma attack " - I've seen different family members have them,

and I've never seen her go through that. Being that she's almost

three years old, how do they really diagnose asthma? Is there a

standard test? Don't people with asthma usually have an allergy to

something that sets them off, therefore maybe she should have an

allergy test? It sounds trivial, but I hate for her to have

another " diagnosis " on top of her CF, if it really doesn't need to be

there.

Tracey, mom to Sydney, 3 w/cf

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