My daughter came from school with a 103 temperature. She was very lethargic. I took her to the Pediatrician, who immediately did a swab for flu. The result was negative so I was elated. Unfortunately the doctor said he felt the test was wrong. Apparently the rapid test in doctors offices are reading false negatives. Later that evening, my daughter had chills, vomiting, rapid breathing, and a profound cough. I took her to the ER. The ER doctor had seen over 339 pediatric patients with the same symptoms. He gave my daughter prednisone because she has asthma. He also wrote a script for tami-flu. Unfortunately the next day, we had a hard time finding the tami-flu, after we finally found it, the insurance took a long time approving it because it had to be compounded from pills to liquid. Therefore the window for my daugher to take tami-flu had expired. It has to be taken within 48 hours.
Following my daughter, my five year old son and myself both came down with the same symptoms, fever, cough, etc. We went to the doctor, and received tami-flu as well. I also received prednisone because of my asthma, and I was already wheezing from such a severe cough.
My kids have seem to bounce back. The tami flu seems to have help my son and I to recover a little sooner than my daughter. So of course I'm still worried. We have this lasting nasty cough. My chest is a little tight. My five year old of course can't tell me how his chest feel, and my daughter has asthma, and she's coughing just as severe.
Our fevers are gone. We all are doing breathing treatments with albuteral as advised every four hours. My daughter and I are doing prednsone for 5 days because of our asthma. And my daughter is also taking an antibiotic because her ears and throat were red during her exam.
My concern is possibly having a secondary infection such as pneumonia. I have read so many horrible articles such as people dying or contracting pneumonia, that it is bothering me. I'm wondering if I should request an antibiotic just to be safe!
I have kept the kids out of school the entire week as a precaution so other kids won't get sick. Although their fever has gone, I felt I can watch over them more, and continue the breathing treatments throughout the weekend.
My chest is a little tight. My husband has been the lone ranger, and having caught this yet. He has been running errands, picking up meds etc.
Does anyone have any advice to lend?
We are finally feeling a little better. Kids bounced back after a week in a half. I got both kids checked out again before returning to school, they received chest x-rays to insure pneumonia. My five year old was put on a week of prednisone to help his cough. My daughter and I still have a little cough (3 weeks later) due to our asthma. My five year old has no cough, but my 8 year old and I are asthmatic, so the cough has hung on longer. I'm still on prednisone, and using advair. We all have gotten the H1N1 vaccination, I didn't want to chance another round of getting this flu. This appeared to be a lot serious than the seasonal flu. Due to our asthma this really took us off of our feet. My chest has never felt so tight. Cough has never been this bad, and I have never had to be on prednisone for over three weeks, along with a steroid inhaler (advair). This was pretty frightning!
I am with Ann and Meg - if your instincts tell you something is still wrong you need to fight for your health and get someone to take a secondary look at you and your daughter. Additionally, due to your respiratory issues (asthma) you are compromised and can be inclined toward respiratory damage.
Shoot- better safe than sorry- go get an x-ray and make sure there is no pnemonia or secondary damage.
S., call the doc for advise if you are worried and ask about the antibiotics.
You and your family should be taking ###-###-####mg of vitamin D, and probably more when you are sick. Also you need to take a Probiotic, especially the ones on Antibiotics b/c it will help replace the good bacteria in the body that helps fight illness. Continue on Vitamin D & Probiotics, especially through the flu season! Also Zinc really helps the Immune System as well.
The ONLY way to be sure you had H1N1 is with a blood test. Don't know if it's too late for that. The swab only says if you had influenza, not what strain, and isn't very accurate. However, doctors seem to be saying tha tH1N1 is the only flu strain tha thas appeared this season so far.
If you are concerned about complications, take everyone to the doctor just to make sure your chests sound okay. there is nothing wrong with askign the doctor to follow-up. ANY cough can turn bad quickly in ANY kid, let alone an asthmatic with the flu. Satisfy your concerns and ask the doctor to listen to your lungs to make sure they are clear, adn amke sure you don't need further treatment.
Sorry this happened to you, but since you had to go through it, hoepfully you are all immmune now?!
I had a horrible cough last year that went on for over 2 months. My chest muscles were sore from the coughing fits and I'd wake up coughing in the middle of the night. I thought it had turned to walking pneumonia, but I was just shy of it says my doctor. An old fashioned mustard plaster helped, but I'd think it's too dangerous to use on kids or anyone with delicate skin. The mustard can burn the skin unless you are very very VERY careful. A heating pad on the chest and Vicks Vapor rub made me feel better for short periods. I also put one of those air activated heat patches (you find them for backs or shoulders in the pharmacy) on my throat with a wide loose headband over it to hold it there. Warm chicken broth was comforting to drink. I used my warm mist humidifier every night and kept my fluids up. You just have to treat the symptoms as best you can and slowly it gets better.
Make sure you all are resting, still making sure fluids are there to keep congestion thin. When this happened with my son, also asthmatic (as am I and my daughter), the pediatrician told us that the antibiotic we used Zithromax stays in the system working for 7 days although he was taking it for 5. We kept up asthma treatments and the cough eventually cleared up. We also gave hot fresh squeezed lemonade (my son hates tea), steam treatments, and kept a humidifier on in his room. Elevate pillows and keep monitoring. If the cough persists, then you might want to be a little aggressive with the doctor's office and request x-ray to rule out pneumonia. Signs to look for: no improvement in appetite, energy or activity levels, and urine output. In my house, low appetite, lethargy and continued cough after we've had prednisone, asthma meds, and antibiotics mean that we need to make another trip to dr. Sometimes, they've added a decongestant that helps asthmatics. Sometimes, we have to wait a few more days. Only twice have we gotten to pneumonia level in 6 years. The over-the-counter stuff doesn't help my children, and the only thing that helps me is Claritin-D 12 (not the 24-hr. one for some reason). My son is on Singulair during spring and fall seasons to help control the allergies/asthma cycle. P.S. It can take 10-14 days to really recover from the flu. I know it's hard to keep children out so long from school, but given the severity of this flu strain, I'd talk to principal now and see if they have a learn at home emergency plan so that children can keep up with their studies until they are strong enough to go back into the classroom. If you send her back and her immune system is still weakened, there's a chance she can catch something else that makes it harder to recover quickly.
I wouldn't worry unnecessarily. It's great they have bounced back, but if you think they may still have something, you can always take them to the doctor (as well as yourself) to get checked out again to make sure there aren't worse problems. I wouldn't stress about it till you know for sure because other than taking the meds and vitamins, there's not much more you can do to prevent anything that may have already happened. Get plenty of rest and drink water and pray. Hope everyone recovers fully and glad you got through the worst of it. Try to stop reading all the negatives as well - it will only cause more worry! Keep us posted!
My daughter and I both had swine flu. The reason the nasal swab test can be falsely negative is because the swine flu virus typically attacks the soft tissue cells lining the lungs, not the soft tissue cells in the sinuses like the seasonal flu.
Both my daughter and I came down with pneumonia as a secondary infection to swine flu. Our fevers went away, then came back about 24 hours later accompanied by the symptoms that you are describing (except mine was very clearly only in one lung). The only way to positively diagnose pneumonia is to go to the doctor and get a chest x-ray. If you have a history of lung/ breathing problems as you describe, it is worth going to the Dr again and requesting that he check.
You have received some good advice here. Please make sure that evryone is taking a good vitamin and getting alot of clear liquids, jello and icepops count too! I'm not sure if you like to cook, but homemade chicken soup is really very good for sick people. The liquid, the protein from the chicken, and the vitamins and minerals from the local grown produce all combine to make a warm healthy meal, and you can freeze and reheat it as long as you don't add noodles to it (they don't do well in the freezer, from personal experience).
My kids and I use vitamins that have been proven to be more absorbed than the ones at the stores, e-mail me if you would like to information.
I am a 38 year old mom. I had the flu (h1n1, I'm not sure, no test), then coughed for two weeks. My chest got tight and when I coughed, I was breathless. My doctor confirmed pneumonia with a chest x-ray. Go to the doctor.
Just a prayer and condolences... My eight yr old came down with it last nite. I have never seen him so sick. I have three other kids of my own and two stepsons all under 10 yrs of age including a 9 month old. I am praying and hoping with every fiber of my being that it doesn't run rampant through the whole house or at least misses the baby. My ped told me push fluids and keep a cool mist vaporizor going, and that moist night air seems to relieve symptoms, so take a walk before bed. (IN WI)
More studies are suggesting that H1N1 can cause severe damage to lungs and doctors need to fully examine lungs with radiographs (x-rays) and CT. Keep in touch with your pediatrician and your physician. If something feels wrong, get it checked out.
