ASTHMA treatment with LYME kids?

October 1, 2010

I would appreciate some feedback from any other parents who have young children

with Lyme, or know adults with Lyme/coinfections, who also have ASTHMA -

especially those who have had to take daily inhaled steroid " controller " meds.

I have a 3 year old daughter who just recently was diagnosed with asthma in July

by a Pediatric Pulmonologist at Vanderbilt Childrens Hosptial. At that time it

seemed to be just " exercised induced " or with active play. So they only gave us

an emergency Albuterol inhaler to use only when she had a coughing fit (which

only relaxes the smooth muscles around the bronchi, but does NOT help the airway

inflammation and over production/clearing of mucus which is the " silent " part of

asthma). They did NOT give us a daily steroid controller inhaler in July. But

with a recent head cold that quickly led to uncontrollable coughing and settling

in the lungs, they have now ordered her to be on a daily steroid inhaler called

Flovent. The pulmonologist still classifies her asthma as " mild " .

Naturally we Lyme folks have been told to avoid steroids like the plague due to

the negative effects on the immune system. And our LLMD does NOT want her to

take the daily steroid inhaler due to weakening of the immune system, and

probable worsening of her tick-borne infections... But, the pediatric

pulmonologist is quite convincing that our daughter needs this for many

different reasons, but especially due to the (rare) possibility of a fatal

asthma attack that even Albuterol can't relieve because it doesn't address the

inflammatory aspect of closing off of inflamed airways.

So, despite my fears of the steroid, and the LLMD's recommendation to NOT do the

steroid inhaler, we did start it today. Right now, without more information and

education on the subject, we felt like the lesser of the 2 evils was the

steroids - out of fear of the complications (even fatal) of uncontrolled

asthma... (?)

So... Has anyone had children of any age, or known adults, that had asthma and

used a daily steroid inhaler (who also had Lyme or any other tick-borne

coinfections)? How did your LLMD feel about using the daily steroid inhaler?

Did the use of the steroid inhaler make your tick-borne infections worse and/or

more difficult to treat? Did your children experience any other side effects

of the daily steroid inhaler (like thrush or yeast/fungal infections, stunted or

slowed growth, increase occurrence of other infections like sinus, or ears,

etc.)? Did any of them " outgrow " the asthma or get over it? Did you ever

figure out what the root cause of the asthma was?

I feel caught between a terrible rock and a hard place. The docs won't talk to

each other, telling me of their firm recommendations which are complete

opposites. We've all been there: what's best for your child? And who do we

listen to, and who do we offend and become " non-compliant " with?

Any feedback you could give me would be greatly appreciated! Sorry for the

length of this email. Thank you!

Christa

October 2, 2010

Christa,

i have a great asthma specialist who sees children and adults ( i am 38)

when i started lyme treatment 20 months ago my herxing would sometimes bring

about asthma and i was free and clear of asthma for 5 years prior. so i went

to see my asthma dr. and told him all about the lyme and steroid controversy

and he is very open about learning about lyme and was not condescending to

me at all, he in fact was fascinated about all i was telling him. anyway, he

told me that generally oral inhalers are have their concentration in the

lungs and residual meds going throughout the body (and all that stuff is

measured in the clinical trails) but he did say some concentrations that go

thru the body are slightly different and he gave me an Rx for the one he

considered to go thru the body the least. it is called QVAR. i had no bad

reactions and i needed it for some weeks but as the asthma cleared up i was

able to wean off under dr.s supervision. generally, that is how all oral

steroids are taken, just for a season of time, not indefinitely. at the time

i did not even consult my llmd about it because i needed to breath and the

explanation was adequate enough for me to feel i made an informed decision.

inhaled steroids go thru the body differently than oral systemic steroids.

hope this helps.

best wishes,

danielle

On Thu, Sep 30, 2010 at 9:55 PM, Christa Sherrod <sncsherrod@...>wrote:

>

> I would appreciate some feedback from any other parents who have young

> children with Lyme, or know adults with Lyme/coinfections, who also have

> ASTHMA - especially those who have had to take daily inhaled steroid

> " controller " meds.

>

> I have a 3 year old daughter who just recently was diagnosed with asthma in

> July by a Pediatric Pulmonologist at Vanderbilt Childrens Hosptial. At that

> time it seemed to be just " exercised induced " or with active play. So they

> only gave us an emergency Albuterol inhaler to use only when she had a

> coughing fit (which only relaxes the smooth muscles around the bronchi, but

> does NOT help the airway inflammation and over production/clearing of mucus

> which is the " silent " part of asthma). They did NOT give us a daily steroid

> controller inhaler in July. But with a recent head cold that quickly led to

> uncontrollable coughing and settling in the lungs, they have now ordered her

> to be on a daily steroid inhaler called Flovent. The pulmonologist still

> classifies her asthma as " mild " .

>

> Naturally we Lyme folks have been told to avoid steroids like the plague

> due to the negative effects on the immune system. And our LLMD does NOT want

> her to take the daily steroid inhaler due to weakening of the immune system,

> and probable worsening of her tick-borne infections... But, the pediatric

> pulmonologist is quite convincing that our daughter needs this for many

> different reasons, but especially due to the (rare) possibility of a fatal

> asthma attack that even Albuterol can't relieve because it doesn't address

> the inflammatory aspect of closing off of inflamed airways.

>

> So, despite my fears of the steroid, and the LLMD's recommendation to NOT

> do the steroid inhaler, we did start it today. Right now, without more

> information and education on the subject, we felt like the lesser of the 2

> evils was the steroids - out of fear of the complications (even fatal) of

> uncontrolled asthma... (?)

>

> So... Has anyone had children of any age, or known adults, that had asthma

> and used a daily steroid inhaler (who also had Lyme or any other tick-borne

> coinfections)? How did your LLMD feel about using the daily steroid inhaler?

> Did the use of the steroid inhaler make your tick-borne infections worse

> and/or more difficult to treat? Did your children experience any other side

> effects of the daily steroid inhaler (like thrush or yeast/fungal

> infections, stunted or slowed growth, increase occurrence of other

> infections like sinus, or ears, etc.)? Did any of them " outgrow " the asthma

> or get over it? Did you ever figure out what the root cause of the asthma

> was?

>

> I feel caught between a terrible rock and a hard place. The docs won't talk

> to each other, telling me of their firm recommendations which are complete

> opposites. We've all been there: what's best for your child? And who do we

> listen to, and who do we offend and become " non-compliant " with?

>

> Any feedback you could give me would be greatly appreciated! Sorry for the

> length of this email. Thank you!

> Christa

>

October 2, 2010

You might try licorice root tea too...

NAtasha

________________________________

From: le Handy <kndplus2@...>

Sent: Sat, October 2, 2010 7:19:18 AM

Subject: Re: [ ] ASTHMA treatment with LYME kids?