<p>Just heard from my dad that my brother had an acute asthma attack yesterday and is staying a few nights in the hospital. Do these things occur frequently? since I read on google that it can be deadly. Being a long ways away from home, I’m obviously very concerned about my brother…</p>
<p>I’m sorry to hear that your brother is in the hospital. </p>
<p>For many people asthma can be a relatively benign condition, but if an attack is severe enough, people can die. The frequency of severe asthma attacks varies from person to person.</p>
<p>Pierre…</p>
<p>Try not to worry too much…I assume this may be one of your brother’s first experiences with asthma since you are asking questions about it???</p>
<p>Asthma is a condition where the airways swell making you unable to breathe…so of course if is dangerous and you can die from it…BUT…there are very good medications to control this and most do very well with it…</p>
<p>Normally someone with Asthma is put on a medication they take everyday (sometimes a pill)…but more likely a medication they inhale to help prevent attacks</p>
<p>Then they are also given an inhalor which should be carried with them at all times…If your brother feels an “attack” coming on he would use this emergency inhalor. Like I said before…these medications are very effective and most people do very well…</p>
<p>Most likely your brother is in the hospital so that they can see how bad his attacks are/what triggers them …what medications/and doses work best for him…and to teach him how to use them properly.</p>
<p>Let us know if you have any other questions…</p>
<p>Is he already on preventative medications such as Advair and Singulair? Does he use a peak flow meter? Carry a rescue inhaler?</p>
<p>If not, although scary, this is a great opportunity for him to take those steps to help prevent or ease further attacks. Allergy testing should be done as well to see if any food or environmental changes can be made. The doctors should be able to construct a plan in which he watches his lung capacity (peak flow meter) and adjusts his medications as necessary. </p>
<p>For example, when I have a cold I automatically change to a stronger Advair twice a day and use my rescue inhaler even if I don’t have a lot of tightness. I am trying to nip it in the bud. My asthma is aggravated by exercise so before I go jogging or horseback riding I use my inhaler. Your brother will develop strategies for dealing with this.</p>
<p>Make sure your family takes this seriously. We had a death in our family from asthma. I hope things are improving for him.</p>
<p>Yes asthma can be fatal. However, acute asthma attack can be prevented rather easily. My son has asthma, but he has learned to ‘prevent’ the attack. If you are in math, severity of asthma is like an exponential function. It starts slow but can very rapidly increase. The trick is to catch it before it reaches the ‘knee’ of the curve. When he was young his mother was very vigilant. Now he ‘knows’ when to take inhaler, nebulizer, singlular and other stuff. In his backpack he carries these stuff all the time, and does things twomules mentions. Also, there are many triggers for asthma, e.g. too much exercise, stress, pollen in the air, fever, cough,cold, dust, cats and dogs and certain food. </p>
<p>Once again yes it can be fetal, but you should not worry too much. As long as he is around adults who can call an ambulance he would get the needed medical care. Now I am sure his pediatrician will educate your parents.</p>
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<p>Nice freudian slip.</p>
<p>If he’s having an acute attack that is not responsive to a rescue inhaler, then he is probably haing periodic nebulizer treatments, and is most likely on a course of a corticosteroid such as prednisone, to control inflammation. He may also be gievn Oxygen. They may also be searching for an underlying cause, since this is his first attack - pneumonia, bronchitis and upper respiratory infections typically cause asthma symptons to increase.</p>
<p>These are all great advice, just wanted to add that once his asthma is under control, he will eventually know what will trigger an onset of an attack. Sometimes it is seasonal, being around certain animals , certain stressors. It is a very manageable disease and it can be very well controlled.</p>
<p>There is an asthma management algorithm that he should be getting from the MD. It is a step by step diagram as to what to do in case of certain triggers and the responses that he need to take such as when your peak flow is ____ then you should do this and it goes on and on, when to seek professional help etc.
Best of luck.</p>
<p>Pierre, my son has very bad asthma as well. He is a “frequent flyer” to the ER and was in the emergency room this weekend for asthma treatment. Asthma can be dangerous, but with work can be controllable. All of the advice above is very good. One of the things I keep my eye on when my son is in the hospital is the “pulse ox” number. This is the measure of the amount of oxygen in the blood (disclaimer: I am not a medical person…I just play one on cc). It is measured in percentage. You want it to be 100%. Typically, they will release at around 97% (for us YMMV). You and your parents can keep an eye on it, and it should start to increase as he gets better. My kids will text me to ask what the number is so they can see the upward swing.
As a brother away at college, the best thing you can do is text him a lot. My son loves to get texts from his siblings and friends when he is in the hospital. Send funny pictures of you wishing him well. Call him and talk to him also. It’s boring in the hospital no matter how hard they try to make it better. Don’t fret if he doesn’t talk back to you much…it really is the thought that will matter to him.
Good luck. I f you have any questions I can try to answer them.</p>
<p>How’s your brother doing today? Has he been discharged? Hoping the news is good…</p>
<p>My brother has already spent 2 nights in the hospital. He’s in the intermediate care section of the intensive care unit right now and they are pumping albuterol and oxygen through a breathing mask. His breathing has substantially improved and chest x-rays show that he had the normal type of asthma attack with signs of viral infection. When I last talked to him, they were switching to one dose of albuterol through nebulizer per hour. The peak flow meter register 225 (measures lung capacity). The nurse says the target is 300. If he continues to make progress, they will space the albuterol to 2 hours, 3 hours etc…
He’s in good spirits though and hopefully he will continue to get better.</p>
<p>just found out that my brother got released from the hospital today 
he needs to finish out his steroid dose and will be on his inhaler every few hours, hopefully he can get recover quickly as I’m sure he’s looking forward to getting back out on the soccer field!</p>
<p>^hey, that’s great to hear! I just read this thread, don’t worry, with an inhaler, he’ll be fine. Advair is a really good medication also for keeping it under control, it worked wonders for me, he can ask his doctor about it.</p>
<p>Glad to hear that he is home and doing so much better.</p>
<p>Pierre, you are a wonderful big brother.</p>