So today I took my DD to the ER. She felt a sensation of her throat closing/having trouble breathing.
She has a long history of LD/cos for at least the past 6 years. She was treated long-term for LD and babesia.
Prior to that she had a significant history of severe asthma from age 2, requiring numerous ER visits. For the asthma, she had to take albuterol via nebulizer or inhaler and sometimes had to take prednisone. When she was little these asthma attacks were very scary and bordered on being life-threatening.
She seemed to "outgrow" the asthma but still needed her inhaler from time to time. She has had times of relative wellness but they are short-lived, unfortunately.
She is still "sickly" so to speak. She is using her inhaler more often. Her EBV/HHV-6 viral titers have been high but nowhere near as high as they once were (she's already done valtrex and valcyte). She seems to be susceptible to every germ she meets. She's had pneumonia a couple of times.
I am planning on starting her with the lowest dose of LDN and gradually increasing the dose to the therapeutic level.
Anyway, back to the topic at hand. The ER doc recommended solumedrol (steroid). He said she had some kind of allergic reaction. We are not aware of any food allergies, but allergies can crop up anytime. I did not object to the solumedrol because in the event of a serious/life-threatening circumstance, this is warranted.
He prescribed prednisone for the next several days. He recommended that she continue taking the benadryl as well as her inhaler at regular intervals. He gave us the name of an allergist to follow up with.
I guess my question is if anyone here has had a similar experience. I always wonder about the possibility of other coinfections and the babesia not being totally gone.
Please don't go down the road of how horrible steroids are. I know all about that. I also know the reality of steroids being live-savers.
Thanks in advance to anyone who can offer support, input or advice.
Posted by Sammi (Member # 110) on :
I am sorry you and your daughter went through this. I am glad she is okay.
When did she stop treatment for tick-borne diseases? I agree it is possible they may not be eradicated.
I think it is possible she could be immune deficient since she gets sick a lot and has had pneumonia a couple of times. I recommend having her immunoglobulin levels tested. These are blood tests.
Does she have a Lyme doctor who could evaluate her?
Posted by Ellen101 (Member # 35432) on :
I have issues with my astham as well. I required hospitalization a few yrs back due to an allergic reaction from an antibiotic which triggered a severe asthma attack.
Yes, steroids are definitely needed and warranted in this case. I am now on advair daily. When I expressed my concern about taking a daily steroid inhaler my LLNP said not to be concerned. The way she put it was "breathing is more important".
Has ypur daughter been evaluated by an allergist? That was who initially put me on the advair and it has made all the difference in the world for me.
I am a little leary of those who are quick to blame asthma on lyme. My mom, grandmother and aunt all had asthma so I inherited it. It had absolutely nothing to do with lyme. This may bethe case for your daughter as well. I also had high titers for EBV/HHV-6.
Sometimes not every symptom is due to lyme and requires further evaluation outside of that disease.
I also have been very concerned about people recommending the stopping of steroids to all. None of us are doctors and to tell a severe asthmatic to cease steroids could result in death or the need for high dose IV steroids to breathe.
Posted by Judie (Member # 38323) on :
Gosh, I'm so sorry your daughter wound up in the emergency room. That's happened to me before and it took awhile to figure out what triggered it.
Personally, I found an environmental illness doctor to be more helpful than an allergist. They could look at the bigger picture of what was going on with my health instead of just focusing on the typical allergies.
I'd take a look at your environment to see if anything has been overlooked.
Common stuff like cleaning supplies, new construction (carpet/paint/new furniture/new car), products with fragrance, hair dye/nail polish, or anything with VOCs (like car exhaust) may be triggering you daughter.
Here's a list of common VOCs:
Many products we have in our homes release or �off-gas� VOCs. Some examples of sources of VOCs are: Building Materials
Air fresheners Air cleaners that produce ozone Cleaning and disinfecting chemicals Cosmetics Fuel oil, gasoline Moth balls Vehicle exhaust running a car in an attached garage
Behaviors
Cooking Dry cleaning Hobbies Newspapers Non-electric space heaters Photocopiers Smoking Stored paints and chemicals Wood burning stoves
-copied from The Minnesota Department of Health, here's the page for more info:
Sammi, thank you. She stopped treatment for the tick-borne stuff about a year and a half/two years ago. She was also treated for CFS. She isn�t immune deficient believe it or not. Her immunoglobulin levels have consistently been within the normal range. She just saw her lyme doc who is retesting for babesia and lyme.
Ellen, thank you for posting. I am sorry to hear you still have issues with asthma too. Who would think that an antibiotic could trigger an asthma attack? I am glad that the advair is helping you. That�s another thing I want to look into. And yep, BREATHING surely is important! A lot of people don�t understand how serious an asthmatic attack can be and that a steroid is often necessary and warranted-lyme or not. Sometimes it is really a matter of just being able to breathe! My daughter had very severe asthma from when she was an infant. She definitely had asthma before the lyme. I agree, not everything is lyme.
Years ago she was evaluated by an allergist and was found to be allergic to dust, dander, ragweed, pollen. But then she outgrew the asthma and didn�t need the inhaler except for very rare occasions until recently.
Judie, thank you for the info and the links. So you�ve also had this happen to you. What triggered this for you? Are you better? I will look into an environmental illness doctor. As far as the environment, I do my best to control whatever I can but she is older, so that means that not everything is in my control. Thanks for listing some possible triggers. That is very helpful-much more so than what the ER doc told us (what else is new?)
Now I am following that lungworm/CFS thread. I think they might be onto something.
Posted by sixgoofykids (Member # 11141) on :
When I had a severe allergic reaction, they wanted to prescribe steroids, but I told them that as long as the Benadryl/Pepsid combo was working, I wasn't going to take it.
Pepsid is used along with Benadryl because it reaches the "other" histamine receptors, so the combo of the two together works better than either by themselves, according to the ER doctor.
I never had to give in to the Prednisone. IF it had been worsening, I would have taken the Prednisone, but I was stable with the antihistamines.
Posted by glm1111 (Member # 16556) on :
See GiGis post about lungworm. I had SEVERE asthma for over 30 yrs until I treated with antiparasitic herbs and salt/c.
Gael
Posted by beaches (Member # 38251) on :
sixgoofykids, that is very interesting about the pepsid. I will keep that in the back of my mind. Were you ever severely asthmatic? I do think that puts a different spin on things, so to speak.
glm, I will check Gigi's post regarding lungworm for sure. Sorry to hear you had severe asthma for so many years. I am sure that was very difficult for you to say the least.
Posted by pme (Member # 31621) on :
I wish I had answers for you, but I just want to say that I have had sort of similar experiences.
My 6 year old was just diagnosed and has just begun treatment.
She has always had food allergies, and developed viral asthma a couple of years ago.
I find my asthma to be related to yeast, not sure about coinfections though
What I wanted to say is that she is officially allergic to peanuts eggs gluten whole soy and has outgrown dairy (these are her foods). But when her immune system is out of whack she can react to anything at all.
As an example, she had a severe allergic reaction to cotton candy (which ironically I had gotten her at a minor league baseball game because nothing else seemed safe, or the vendors could not produce ingredients). I was able to not bring her to the ER this time, the last time it was to presumably safe popcorn which I checked and rechecked and spoke with the manufacturer and they said no peanuts around at all, but that one required a trip to the ER.
Allergy testing would not show that she was allergic to these things, but she still reacts to them when she is "full bucketing", meaning when she is environmentally reactive already or has been sick or is just stressed.
I guess what I am trying to say is: sometimes the immune system can just be overreactive. Because it seems like you are not sure what your DD reacted to, I would make sure that you have an epi pen with her or you at all times, especially because throat closing was one of her symptoms. Sometimes allergy testing does not reveal the full picture. Do you have an epi pen?
I hope she is feeling better now.
Posted by Judie (Member # 38323) on :
Hey Beaches,
I'll send you a PM about my experience. I don't have time right now, but I'll do it later.
Yep, the ER docs had no clue for me either (wound up there twice) nor do a lot of docs. There are very few docs who have been trained in this (but they're out there) and they span the spectrum from conventional to alternative, so you can pick your comfort level.
Posted by mlg (Member # 35383) on :
I will send you a pm
Posted by beaches (Member # 38251) on :
Thank you all so much for your replies and PMs. I really appreciate all the input.
I have new info that I am still trying to process. My head is spinning a bit but I will write soon with an update. Thank you all again.
Posted by LAXlover (Member # 25518) on :
So sorry to hear.
I also believe parasites to be the cause of allergies in some cases.
My dd, age 14 had terrible allergies until we gave her Flagyl which does address parasites.
She tested positive through a stool test by Parasitology Center inc in Arizona. (I HIGHLY recommend them for this stool test)
They found the byproducts of parasites!!! called Charcot leyden crystals.
NONE of the traditional labs found this. I feel everyone should do this test!!
-LAXlover
Posted by beaches (Member # 38251) on :
Thank you all again so much. My head is still spinning and I can't say for sure if she had an allergic reaction or not. We've been to a couple of specialists since this episode and seems like they're scratching their heads. God, please give me patience because I don't have much to spare.
Her pediatrician put her on doxycycline because she believes dd has the beginnings of pneumonia yet again. So dd is feeling somewhat better after several days on that.
On top of that, her lyme doc had retested her and she + for lyme again and needs to be retreated.
She wants to abide by what the lyme doc says, which is good. In the back of my mind, I am still planning on the LDN and looking into the lungworm/CFS issue as well as treating for parasites in general.
PME and Laxlover, I hope your kids are doing better.