ASTHMA treatment with LYME

[Guest guest]

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

with Lyme/co-infections, 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 Children's Hospital. 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, and we are especially concerned about 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 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 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 have 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