WARNING! I talk about puke. In fact, replace "sick" in the title with "puke" and that's what I mean. If you don't want to read about vomit, turn back NOW!
My son is going to be 3 in a few months. While he's learning to verbally communicate, he's still only 2, so getting him to tell me things like "I'm going to throw up" is not happening right now. That being said, can I get a little help from my older CF pals?
Here's the story. Samuel has been sick for a few days. Mostly a cold. I would guess he has a sore throat because his voice is very raspy. It started with a cough (surprise!) and went on to a runny nose and eye thing. The symptoms are better, except when he starts on his hypertonic saline (which I can only guess it's HTS...we are in a double-blind study). When he is well, he can do 15 minutes of HTS in his sleep. No, for real. When he's not well, not so much. Hoping to get 10 minutes in last night while he was asleep was a pipe dream. He started coughing immediately, which is fine. I like coughing. It clears things out, right? But, after about 5 minutes of HTS, he started gasping for air. He woke up freaked out, as we all were trying to figure out what to do. Then it started. The vomit. Luckily we had a bucket close by but still made a bit of a mess. This, by the way, is the second night in a row this has happened, except the gasping part.
In the midst, dear husband asks "So is this what we have to look forward to?" Based on my limited knowledge* I answer "Yes, I think so". But I thought I'd ask my pals with CF who CAN communicate to give me some insight.
Is this normal?
Do you get sick to your stomach when you are ill?
Is this just happening because his secretion management is nil?
HA! Those questions rhyme and I wasn't even trying! :)
Thanks for your help. I'm hoping to NOT clean vomit out of a vest tonight.
*I should say, I have somewhat limited knowledge because I choose to focus on what we are dealing with today. If I thought about how bad things are going to get all the time, I'd never get out of bed. For me, it's just easier to sorta think about CF and it's complications on a need to know basis.
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I think he's got a bug. I puke more often from a violent cough when stuffed from a meal than I do when I'm sick, and never from any medicine.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a kid, though, I was a different story. I'd upchuck with every cold and flu. I was the king of the classroom trash can. I remember at least 5 times when I was sitting in the school office with my head between my knees waiting for my mom to come pick me up. I'd say it subsided around 12 or so.
Whenever I get sick it means more snot -from the nose, the lungs, and everywhere else. With that runny nose comes drainage out the front and down the back of the throat. I know when I get alot of drainage in my tummy I puke. When I cough alot and hard, I puke. And when I do my hypertonic saline and I am already having a hard time breathing it makes me short of breathe and I cough so hard -I puke.
ReplyDeleteAs for doing meds while sleeping - though its easier its not the healthiest way. The point of meds (besides albuteral) is to get you coughing and spitting (or puking if you have too) all that gunk up. If you are sleeping then you aren't getting the benifit. CF chest therapy needs active participation to be affective!
7% is a hard medication to handle. It makes my throat hurt, my chest hurt, and so on -BUT it works b/c you get alot of junk out!
I hope I helped. FYI first visit to your blog, love it. Im following.
HI there... I just wanted to say hello... I know your post is a week old, but I was going to add that my little one is 6, and he has got caught on his mucus before, and sometimes it was hard to tell if he was sick or just trying to get the gunk out... I remember when he was 2 or 3 and we often had that problem with mucus ( only we didnt know he had CF) Lane is on 7% and I have heard it is pretty harsh, but he seem to handle it quite well...
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