My 14 year old son is coming home after being in the hospital since Tuesday night. He had a bad asthma attack after coming home from school in Virginia. I haven't been able to see him as I have been sick all week. When I took him to the emergency room Tuesday night (he had been there the night before, also) they gave him one treatment and then ignored him for an hour until I dragged over a nurse and told her he couldn't breathe. She gave him another treatment and again ignored him until I agitated for a doctor. When the pediatrician came down, he was furious they hadn't even taken his temperature or pulse/ox level. They almost had to intubate him and the doctor arranged for him to be transferred to Shneiders Children's Hospital, one of the best around, as he said he wouldn't get appropriate care where we were. He asked why I waited until my son was so bad to bring him in and it was all I could do not to scream at him. He wasn't so bad before we waited two hours for appropriate care. My son was in the ICU until Thursday night.
The problem I have now is my husband's kittens. I moved all the animals (rabbits, birds) to a room in the basement and want to give them away. My husband, who is disabled (degenerative disc disease), rescued two kittens over the summer and they are a big source of amusement and comfort for him. He won't even let me send them to the basement. I am leaving the big black cat outdoors. I would give them all away in a minute to prevent another episode like this. Does anyone know of any other solution?

I have a cousin whose mother gave away all their pets because of his athsma. I also have another cousin whose mother DIDN'T give away the pets. The one with the pets was supposed to have a more severe form of athsma, but has had fewer and milder episodes than the child without pets. I've never noticed either of the children having episodes when they come stay with us (five cats, two rabbits and a dog) either.

If you are really concerned, try giving the cats frequent dander reducing baths...start while they are kittens and they'll get used to it.

My family, unfortunately, has lots of asthma. My grandfather, father, cousins, DH, and most recently grandson. We've learned a lot with the grandson's asthma, which began when he was about 10 months old and has fortunately dimished now that he's 10 years. First of all, has your son had allergy tests? You might want to determine if he is, in fact, allergic to the animals in the house. If he's not, then you'll need to look elswhere. If he is, then there are 2 schools of thought.

Some doctors believe that exposure to animals when the child is very young does actually help reduce the incidence of asthma or at least its severity. Others believe that exposure must be stopped. If your son is indeed allergic and reacted so severely at this age you probably will need to minimize his contact with his allergens. Is his doctor a pediatric asthma specialist? That can make all the difference. Our grandson went undiagnosed for months because he coughed instead of wheezed and the regular peiatrician did not recognize his asthma.

Is your son taking preventative medication? Again, we had repeated trips to the ER at midnight until the specialist prescribed the preventative inhalation medication. At his young age that meant a nebulizer machine. He eventually became quite proficient and could handle it himself. Once he started, the trips to the ER almost disappeared. The preventative is different from the albuterol you take once an episode has begun, it cannot actually help once an attack is in progress. But it certainly helps to prevent attacks.

How does he do with asthma at his school?

With DH, allergy tests revealed that his worst allergy is to dust mites. So: a special vacuum cleaner with an industrial strength hepa filter, allergy covers on the mattress, pillows, and comforter, and in the bedroom no books, pictures, plants, or rugs, and I wash those curtains every month. His asthma improved as soon as we did all that. The tests also showed that he is not allergic to cats, thank God, so he is able to continue sleeping with his cat and I can sleep with mine.

Please forgive me if all this is terribly obvious to you. With our grandson, the mother of a friend of my daughter's is a pediatrician specializing in respiratory problems, and she kept telling us that the child had asthma and must be on preventative meds. If we had believed her and insisted on more attention at the HMO, it would have saved months of illness. I remember sitting upright all night with the baby coughing on my chest. We're lucky, because as you know, asthma can be life threatening.

Caveat: I haven't researched this to death, so I don't know everything about what I'm talking about. My own asthma is rather mild, and is triggered by things other than our two cats.

It might not be only the pets -- just throwing your DH a straw here. I agree with you completely: the cats should not be as cherished as your son, and if the pets ARE a significant trigger to his severe attacks, they do have to go. And they are likely to be a significant trigger, bathed or not.

But you don't say anything about whether you have carpeting or bare floors, whether you have baseboard or forced air heating, whether your house is humid or dry, and whether you've just done renovations or minor repairs involving solvents (e.g. expanding foam insulation, caulking, painting).

Check your house for mould. If you have forced air heating or central air conditioning, get your ducts cleaned and disinfected professionally. It's something I do every three years for my house -- and it clears out all those little toys my kids drop into the ducts in their bedrooms! If your bathroom has flooded and water seeped into the walls and ceiling below the bathroom (http://www.angelfire.com/fl2/bluesheep/destructolog.html to see how my 3 year old son has managed to cause water damage to the house twice), you may have a problem bigger than two kittens. If you have carpeting, see if you can lift it in the spot just outside your bathroom door, or nearest your kitchen sink, to see if there is mould growing under it.

I can't remember whether you already said you were a Christmas-tree person or not: was it a real tree? Evergreens emit an ethyl gas when they're stressed (as trees moved indoors can do), which can be an irritant.

And finally, would his diet have changed drastically since coming home? It's not the same, but my bronchitis was pronounced this year (Ventolin and corticosteroid puffers in addition to penicillin), and I checked with my naturopath to see how I could adjust my diet to speed up my recovery. She took away most meat except pork and beef broth, denied me seafood, wheat, and dairy, and prescribed lots of greens, carrots, okayed rice, oatmeal in moderation if I ate it with cinnamon, and advised me to up my intake of hot foods like mustards and peppers and ginger and peppermint, and to chew on magnesium supplements. This is to clear phlegm from the chest, and the magnesium is to help strengthen the lung tissue. It might be something to try for your son. It certainly can't hurt him to cram as much lettuce and broccoli into him as possible.

My son has tested positive to cats, dogs and dust (didn't try rabbits or birds). He's been allergic to honey since he was a year old. He had stopped taking preventative medication at school. He has had a nebulizer since he was a baby as well as hand pumps and knows more about his medication than I do.This house probably has mold as the roof leaks, the toilet keeps throwing up (shared private sewer line is a mess somewhere along the way), upstairs shower leaks (upstairs toilet doesn't handle anything bigger than a raisin)and the central air floods the basement every summer (also leaks down there when it rains). The kitchen stove and oven aren't vented. (No tree- we're Jewish.)The landlord originally wanted less than two hundred thousand for the place, but now that prices have gone up in the neighborhood, he wants three hundred thousand. This has pretty much decided me against it. I'd rather take one of the newer houses built out of particle board, but relatively mold free. I've got my son staying by friends until he goes back to school next week, and of course he's back on preventatives as well as steroids.I have heard of special wipes for cats. I'll have to do more research. Wouldn't mind eliminating some of the other pets that seem to have become my responsibility.

Perhaps he should go back on the preventative meds several weeks before coming home. That might help. Is he allergic to dust or (and?) dust mites? Some of the household management is the same, but some very different. I forgot to say that there are no rugs/carpeting in the bedroom, and the floor is wet mopped about once every 2 months, and vacuumed once a week. Evidently allergies are more severe at night when you're asleep, so it's more important to maintain the bedroom as allergen free as possible. The cats have been kept out of the bedroom my grandson uses when he visits here, for 10 years now. We don't think he's allergic to cats, it's just in case. He should really have the tests soon. It does sound like your house may have some mold. That's my worst allergy. There are some stores and houses I won't go into because of the strong mold smell.

This must be so difficult for you!

The mold in your place is probably more of a culprit than the cat. Also, did you say you have birds? Birds can trasmit respiratory illness to humans, especially ones with compromised immune systems or asthma. Has your son been stressed lately? Stress can make you wheeze and even send you into status asthmaticus. Why was your son off his preventative meds? That could have made all the difference. I would try a vacuum with a hepa filter, keep the cats out of your son's bedroom and crack the window-indoor air is much worse than outdoor. If you do have mold, your landlord has to clean it up, not exactly sure of the laws where you are, but I would check them out. For your husband's sake, I would talk to your son's specialist and try to find out what his triggers are. Try doing and eliminating things one by one, and leave the kittens for last. I know people to have asthma and have cats and they do just fine. And if it does come down to getting rid of the cats, at least your DH will know you tried everything else.

Also, it just dawned on me. The change in air quality from VA to NY. We had this girl in the ICU that came from CA to PA and went into status asthmaticus and was intubated on the ventilator. We also think she stopped taking her prednisone prior to coming out because her mom had said that she was "tired of being fat" and this girl did not look like she had been on prednisone. Good luck.

>>>special vacuum cleaner with an industrial strength hepa filter, allergy covers on the mattress, pillows, and comforter, and in the bedroom no books, pictures, plants, or rugs, and I wash those curtains every month<<<
~And don't forget cleaning ceiling fans thoroughly on a daily basis, as well as light fixtures. You might even consider investing in a steam cleaner. Do you use a lot of cleaning products that might contain bleach, ammonia, perfumes, or other irritants? I, too, would check out everything possible prior to evicting the felines, to perhaps keep peace with your DH.

My DB was(is)a severe asthmatic, so we had to do all of that while I was growing up. Have you had your son checked for food allergies as well? The wrong types of food would trigger asthma attacks for him just as surely as inhaled allergins. So would changes in weather. (Weather would also set off my DDs' very severe croup attacks, to the point of rosephus epinephrin, oxygen, & hospitalization.) Poor DB used to keep reptiles as pets, until he became allergic to them, as well. Perhaps checking out the mold angle, as well as weather/climate changes might be a good idea. Hope your DS does better.

Ooops! I meant weekly on the ceiling fans and light fixtures. Sorry. :\

I also hate to mention this, but it can be a problem for us in the deep, hot, soggy south. Cockroaches. Just about everybody has them in some form down here, and if not controlled, they can cause terrible asthma problems. For us, it's pretty much water bugs (giant American flying cockroaches), but we've had friends living in the cities who had to remove that el-cheapo 70's wood paneling because the little German roaches made condos behind it, and the dried cockroach parts became airborne triggers for their kids' asthma. Spraying is probably out, but there are gel poisons that can be applied in out-of-the-way areas that help control them.

Someone advised about having the heating ducts cleaned out. Yes, this is important. We have this done every autumn. You'd be surprised what a lot of dust they clean out of those ducts! Yuck.

Almost worth getting an electrostatic filter on the furnace... I remember the duct guy found a partially rotted, partially dessicated meat sandwich the first time my ducts were cleaned. $%!@#$#@$ piggy contractors. X-(

You are going to think this is completely crazy, but believe me I've seen it work. When I was a little girl a close friend and neighbor, mother to 3 girls close to my age, had asthma really bad. She had to take/get shots everyday and it was not unusual to see an ambulance come to get her and rush her to emergency several times in a year. My mother also suffered from asthma and took shots each week. Helen, our neighbor, read an article about Chihuahua Dogs taking and/or curing asthma patients. Helen got herself not one but two little dogs and she eventually was rid of the disease. We got little Pepino and he became the love of the family and Mom hasn't suffered from asthma again. Pepino was also a close companion to my father who suffered from heart disease,went through a triple bi-pass and was on total disability. Ask your husband if he would consider getting a little puppy to replace the kittens. Good Luck to you and your family and have a Happy New Year...Carol

Hello- Good ventilation in the "sleeping room" may provide some comfort to those suffering from asthma. Lots of times we want our homes to be air tight in order to keep down energy costs or keep out allergens and as a result we end up actually having MORE concentrated trapped indoor pollution than that contained in the outside air. Cracking a window an inch or two at night may be all that is needed to provide a little relief. None properly vented gas heating sources may be the cause of many indoor air problems.