How long do you wait to call the doctor?

[Ratatosk]

It's the "beat that cough out of him" mentality that's been drilled into our heads since day one! <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0"> And by no means is it a long term routine for weeks on end. Our doctor does have several parents who routinely do 4x a day, but that's the exception. Barebones twice a day. 3 times a day is preferred.
<br />
<br />If we're both working and he's still well enough to go to school, we usually just bump it up to 4 treatments, in which DH gets up at 2:30 and gives him CPT; however, if he's sick enough that he's home from school, then yes. One of us will give him CPT if he's sleeping or have him do the vest every 4 hours if he's awake. For the 6 times it does need to be timed right. The extra CPT treatments aren't the usual 30 minute ones -- 15-20 with his albuterol/atrovent nebs.
<br />
<br />I should point out though that when he has gotten a cough in the past, it's been a rarity. I'm awake with worry anyway, so I'll do CPT. We've been fortunate in the past that a couple days on increased treatments and abx has seemed to have done the trick. And if he was in the hospital, they'd be doing it as well.

 

[Printer]

Becca:

I'm 70 years old and if I have a situation/question about my health, I send an e-mail to the NP in the CF Clinic. I let her determine the seriousness of the issue and she will either e-mail (at her convenience) or phone me.

I let her and my Doctor determine how serious my symptoms are.

I hope this helps.

Bill

 

[Printer]

Becca:

I'm 70 years old and if I have a situation/question about my health, I send an e-mail to the NP in the CF Clinic. I let her determine the seriousness of the issue and she will either e-mail (at her convenience) or phone me.

I let her and my Doctor determine how serious my symptoms are.

I hope this helps.

Bill

 

[Printer]

Becca:
<br />
<br />I'm 70 years old and if I have a situation/question about my health, I send an e-mail to the NP in the CF Clinic. I let her determine the seriousness of the issue and she will either e-mail (at her convenience) or phone me.
<br />
<br />I let her and my Doctor determine how serious my symptoms are.
<br />
<br />I hope this helps.
<br />
<br />Bill

 

[hmw]

Heather~ When Emily is really sick we do 4x day; increased congestion/milder illness 3x. We've seen the difference when she's sick that it makes to keep up those extra tx. We saw it in the hospital when she had pneumonia just how rapidly her air movement became restricted again in the hours after having a treatment. However, when it comes to something like 6x day I think part of what makes it even viable at all for Max is the fact that he sleeps through CPT. There's no way on earth Emily would, and if they can't sleep while sick, whatever you are doing is going to be diminished in value since they need their rest. I have a hard time messing with her feeds at night without waking her up; there's no way she could get a neb or cpt tx during the night.

I feel sometimes that she would benefit from a 3rd daily tx, but we don't even have 4 full hours after she gets home from school before she has to be pounding away on her bedtime treatment. There is not enough time to do another one and leave sufficient time inbetween between using the medications, never mind the impact on the clock w/ all that goes in the household for all 5 of us. Since she has to be up early she can't burn the candle on both ends, with a late bedtime to accommodate multiple late-day treatments and then have to get up much earlier than her brothers ever had to for elementary school. And since Emily can't cope at all with reduced sleep when she's sick, she misses a LOT of school when she is past the acute phase of illness but still sick enough to be needing the extra treatments. But I can't figure out any other way around it. When she's sick and needs it, we do it. But healthy, it's the twice a day.

Emily coughs, and coughs, and COUGHS with her illnesses... to the point of sometimes vomiting while vesting. Her 30min sessions turn into an hour with all the pausing to cough. Doing that 4x a day is an incredible drain on our time and exhausting for her, believe me.

 

[hmw]

Heather~ When Emily is really sick we do 4x day; increased congestion/milder illness 3x. We've seen the difference when she's sick that it makes to keep up those extra tx. We saw it in the hospital when she had pneumonia just how rapidly her air movement became restricted again in the hours after having a treatment. However, when it comes to something like 6x day I think part of what makes it even viable at all for Max is the fact that he sleeps through CPT. There's no way on earth Emily would, and if they can't sleep while sick, whatever you are doing is going to be diminished in value since they need their rest. I have a hard time messing with her feeds at night without waking her up; there's no way she could get a neb or cpt tx during the night.

I feel sometimes that she would benefit from a 3rd daily tx, but we don't even have 4 full hours after she gets home from school before she has to be pounding away on her bedtime treatment. There is not enough time to do another one and leave sufficient time inbetween between using the medications, never mind the impact on the clock w/ all that goes in the household for all 5 of us. Since she has to be up early she can't burn the candle on both ends, with a late bedtime to accommodate multiple late-day treatments and then have to get up much earlier than her brothers ever had to for elementary school. And since Emily can't cope at all with reduced sleep when she's sick, she misses a LOT of school when she is past the acute phase of illness but still sick enough to be needing the extra treatments. But I can't figure out any other way around it. When she's sick and needs it, we do it. But healthy, it's the twice a day.

Emily coughs, and coughs, and COUGHS with her illnesses... to the point of sometimes vomiting while vesting. Her 30min sessions turn into an hour with all the pausing to cough. Doing that 4x a day is an incredible drain on our time and exhausting for her, believe me.

 

[hmw]

Heather~ When Emily is really sick we do 4x day; increased congestion/milder illness 3x. We've seen the difference when she's sick that it makes to keep up those extra tx. We saw it in the hospital when she had pneumonia just how rapidly her air movement became restricted again in the hours after having a treatment. However, when it comes to something like 6x day I think part of what makes it even viable at all for Max is the fact that he sleeps through CPT. There's no way on earth Emily would, and if they can't sleep while sick, whatever you are doing is going to be diminished in value since they need their rest. I have a hard time messing with her feeds at night without waking her up; there's no way she could get a neb or cpt tx during the night.
<br />
<br />I feel sometimes that she would benefit from a 3rd daily tx, but we don't even have 4 full hours after she gets home from school before she has to be pounding away on her bedtime treatment. There is not enough time to do another one and leave sufficient time inbetween between using the medications, never mind the impact on the clock w/ all that goes in the household for all 5 of us. Since she has to be up early she can't burn the candle on both ends, with a late bedtime to accommodate multiple late-day treatments and then have to get up much earlier than her brothers ever had to for elementary school. And since Emily can't cope at all with reduced sleep when she's sick, she misses a LOT of school when she is past the acute phase of illness but still sick enough to be needing the extra treatments. But I can't figure out any other way around it. When she's sick and needs it, we do it. But healthy, it's the twice a day.
<br />
<br />Emily coughs, and coughs, and COUGHS with her illnesses... to the point of sometimes vomiting while vesting. Her 30min sessions turn into an hour with all the pausing to cough. Doing that 4x a day is an incredible drain on our time and exhausting for her, believe me.

 

[grantsmom]

Deciding when to call the doc is still something I havn't mastered yet. My sons clinic usually won't start him on anything unless he has been coughing for 5 days but there has been times when I call sooner. I sometimes second guess myself. Should I have called sooner? Should I have waited? When in doubt I call and let them decide the next step.

 

[grantsmom]

Deciding when to call the doc is still something I havn't mastered yet. My sons clinic usually won't start him on anything unless he has been coughing for 5 days but there has been times when I call sooner. I sometimes second guess myself. Should I have called sooner? Should I have waited? When in doubt I call and let them decide the next step.

 

[grantsmom]

Deciding when to call the doc is still something I havn't mastered yet. My sons clinic usually won't start him on anything unless he has been coughing for 5 days but there has been times when I call sooner. I sometimes second guess myself. Should I have called sooner? Should I have waited? When in doubt I call and let them decide the next step.

 

[hmw]

Like many who have posted here it's hard to decide sometimes. Our clinic has us err on the sooner rather than later stance. If they waited until Emily had been sick for 10 days before starting her on something, she'd wind up SO sick that it would take her weeks longer to get better. But we don't start at the first runny nose either, because occasionally she *can* beat a mild cold without needing something. We increase vest & nebs and use sinus rinses at the very first sign of increased congestion/illness and call after a few days and get their input. Based on what's going on with her, they decide.

Having a good 'sick plan' is really important in taking some of the guesswork out of it (as well as in giving you some tools to use the moment they start getting sick.) It will still never make illness easy to handle or take all the questions out of managing it, but will help.

 

[hmw]

Like many who have posted here it's hard to decide sometimes. Our clinic has us err on the sooner rather than later stance. If they waited until Emily had been sick for 10 days before starting her on something, she'd wind up SO sick that it would take her weeks longer to get better. But we don't start at the first runny nose either, because occasionally she *can* beat a mild cold without needing something. We increase vest & nebs and use sinus rinses at the very first sign of increased congestion/illness and call after a few days and get their input. Based on what's going on with her, they decide.

Having a good 'sick plan' is really important in taking some of the guesswork out of it (as well as in giving you some tools to use the moment they start getting sick.) It will still never make illness easy to handle or take all the questions out of managing it, but will help.

 

[hmw]

Like many who have posted here it's hard to decide sometimes. Our clinic has us err on the sooner rather than later stance. If they waited until Emily had been sick for 10 days before starting her on something, she'd wind up SO sick that it would take her weeks longer to get better. But we don't start at the first runny nose either, because occasionally she *can* beat a mild cold without needing something. We increase vest & nebs and use sinus rinses at the very first sign of increased congestion/illness and call after a few days and get their input. Based on what's going on with her, they decide.
<br />
<br />Having a good 'sick plan' is really important in taking some of the guesswork out of it (as well as in giving you some tools to use the moment they start getting sick.) It will still never make illness easy to handle or take all the questions out of managing it, but will help.

 

[Ratatosk]

Yes, DS is able to sleep thru his CPT, so it's a bit more manageable to increase his treatments. Last hospitalization the RTs didn't do CPT, only supervised the vest, so DH got up and did the middle of the night one.

As for calling the doctor, we too are told to err on the side of caution. That we as parents know if something is off. Still, I found it silly to call regarding DS nasty boogery nose when he was a baby thinking it was something all kids go thru during cold and flu season, but his doctor told us it was better to call than risk having that crud get into his lungs. Even when one of us as parents is sick we've been told that we should call or should've called.

 

[Ratatosk]

Yes, DS is able to sleep thru his CPT, so it's a bit more manageable to increase his treatments. Last hospitalization the RTs didn't do CPT, only supervised the vest, so DH got up and did the middle of the night one.

As for calling the doctor, we too are told to err on the side of caution. That we as parents know if something is off. Still, I found it silly to call regarding DS nasty boogery nose when he was a baby thinking it was something all kids go thru during cold and flu season, but his doctor told us it was better to call than risk having that crud get into his lungs. Even when one of us as parents is sick we've been told that we should call or should've called.

 

[Ratatosk]

Yes, DS is able to sleep thru his CPT, so it's a bit more manageable to increase his treatments. Last hospitalization the RTs didn't do CPT, only supervised the vest, so DH got up and did the middle of the night one.
<br />
<br />As for calling the doctor, we too are told to err on the side of caution. That we as parents know if something is off. Still, I found it silly to call regarding DS nasty boogery nose when he was a baby thinking it was something all kids go thru during cold and flu season, but his doctor told us it was better to call than risk having that crud get into his lungs. Even when one of us as parents is sick we've been told that we should call or should've called.

 

[bwilliams395]

Thanks for all the input! We went to clinic today for her annual appointment and the doctor went ahead and prescribed antibiotics because she has an ear infection. The cold is thankfully getting better on it's own, and I'm sure the meds will help too.

Again thanks!

 

[bwilliams395]

Thanks for all the input! We went to clinic today for her annual appointment and the doctor went ahead and prescribed antibiotics because she has an ear infection. The cold is thankfully getting better on it's own, and I'm sure the meds will help too.

Again thanks!

 

[bwilliams395]

Thanks for all the input! We went to clinic today for her annual appointment and the doctor went ahead and prescribed antibiotics because she has an ear infection. The cold is thankfully getting better on it's own, and I'm sure the meds will help too.
<br />
<br />Again thanks!