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Posted by Debbie on November 26, 2002 at 16:14:00:
In Reply to: Re: FOR ROWENA posted by Rowena on November 26, 2002 at 15:33:14:
Hi Rowena. You are so right. Basic principles of health care are very similar, however they make different growth charts for them and children and adults have a little bit of a different medical protocol when it comes to specialists and mostly routine bloodwork, etc. (ie. see ortho every 6 mos for neck stability, GI to check for Hirschprungs, TSH and T4 testing every 6 mos., CBC every 6 months, etc.) I go ahead and post on the board just in case there is someone else out there that this might impact. My daughter has a very low ANC count, has been as low as 600, never higher than 1400 so she's very suceptible to infection and when she gets them, she keeps them seemingly forever. My pediatrician says 1500 is bottom line acceptable and 3500 is considered appropriate. She sees hematology every 6 mths for a leukemia check. When she gets an infection, usually sinus, or ear, and she cant shake it, it always ends up setting off reactive airway disease. I had her in the hospital on Saturday night to be nebulized then I give her Proventil thru an optichamber. I use a humidifier in her room (cool mist) and disinfect it weekly. I also give her extra zinc and magnesium, per the geneticist for immune boosting and polyvysol vitamins daily. For now, I guess that my questions are, one, do you know of ANY other remedies/tricks to head off or boost this low immune system problem, and two, is there any way to head off the reactive airway part of it when she does get sick. The reactive airway just complicates things even more, and by the time she's over the wheezing/coughing, the infections back up to her sinus's/throat/ears. I realize that this will be a chronic problem for her as she does have enlarged adnoids and tonsils (DS related) and a small airway (also phyisological due to the DS). She is followed by ENT and she has tubes. She's also had her eyes probed twice and when she gets sick they just run b/c the tear ducts get blocked again. I hope I made sense, and thanks, your other postings have been very helpful to me for my daughter as well as my son who is now one and still doesn't sleep thru the night, has been NG tube fed due to GERD and failure to thrive and hospitalized 3 times in his little life due to malnutrition. Other than that, he's just fine!!!!
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: Hi Debbie
: I must admit my experience with special needs children is limited. However many principles of child health relate to all children. I would be pleased to offer you any information or advice I can. Feel free to e-mail your questions and I will endeavour to give you an honest reply as to whether I feel qualified to provide and answer or not.