bronchiolitis - how critical?

makinithappen

S is 12 weeks/7 adjusted.  He has had major congestion for a few weeks that went down in his chest and now has coughing.  Took him to the pedi this morning and she said bronchiolitis and he has to do neubulizer treatments every 4 hours and go back in a week.  She didn't want him to leave before he did one there because his o2 level was 93, and she coded all paperwork as moderate/severe.  I know his levels dropped more while in the NICU, but he was constantly hooked to monitors so I didn't feel such a worry.

How worried should I be?  I was fine until I went there and something has freaked me out now.

adrielegorburu

I would call your Pedi office and talk to the nurse - they may make you feel a bit better. DD has had bronchiolitis for months now but shes older and in daycare so shes constantly sick - weve pretty much been on albuterol and pulmicort treatments for 4-5 months straight right now. BUT shes a very happy and relatively healthy girl. The major thing I would suggest is have a consult with a pulomonolgist - DD has been followed by one since her discharge so I feel very confident that I understand her lung issues well. Bronchiolitis is much like Bronchitis for adults - it goes away when they get better but it can take a while.

lilmejo

I felt the same way after DS pedi told us he had brochiolitis. I was freaking out about asthma and nebulizers. At first we decided to skip the nebulizer treatments as pedi said they can sometimes do nothing, but after a recent trip to the ER for a cough, the ER doc said well we'll give him a treatment here and see if it helps him and it did, so we were giving them to him until he cleared up. I think it's more so just watching when they get sick as it can go to their lungs more so with bronchiolitis. However, our LO has been congested since birth and I've decided that while I do know he has the bronchiolitis due to chest x-ray I'm not convinced this is causing his congestion so he has an appointment with ENT next week so we can look into this further. In general though do some research on line but for the most part I think it's not as bad as they can make it out to be

makinithappen

Thank you.  S has also had congestion for as long as I can remember and i didn't take him in until I could feel it really in his chest and he got the cough.  It had me wondering if he's had bronchiolitis this whole time and it had got really severe or something.  He doesn't have the shallow breathing and stuff but of course all the risk factors (under 3 months, premature, requiring oxygen in past, etc...) that made me worry it would require hospitalization.

Will you update on what your ENT says?  I think we might also see one of the lung docs if this doesn't get a lot better in a week as the pedi said it should.

urbanflowerpot

I think I've gone numb to it - it's horrible, but not critical (unless your dr tells you otherwise, of course). I'm deep into DS fourth bronchial virus of the year (not including the wonderful norovirus). Each round seems to last three weeks. We're SAH, so I don't know what the deal is. Hope LO feels better soon!