Tuesday, November 18, 2008

a cure for the cough?

so Peter has had chronic winter cough since he was a baby. Then after his transplant he developed a cough that never went away. For almost 2 years I have been dealing with hacking phlegmy cough, 3 bouts of pneumonia, countless rounds of bronchitis/bronchial infection and endless antibiotics. It has been keeping him up at night, causing sleep deprivation, a bad attitude, missed days of school and numerous trips to the pediatrician.

So I got an e-mail about putting vicks vapor rub on the soles of your feet to calm night time cough. I thought "What the heck, it is only $5 at walmart, I can try it".
The difference is AMAZING. We put it on his feet at night. Just slather a layer on the soles of his feet, put socks on and he doesnt cough all night. In my case it really works.

Yesterday Charles took Peter to the pediatricians, thinking he needed another antibiotic.
Instead they prescribed albuterol through a nebulizer twice a day breathing treatments.
Then the doctor noticed Peter was on Enalapril (blood pressure med). He pulled up the sheet for enalapril and it turns out that it is an ACE inhibitor and one of the side effects is a cough.
So I dont know if he has an Enalapril induced cough or not. I am going to call his cardiologist and find out if we can switch blood pressure meds, something that is not an ACE inhibitor and see if the cough clears up.

So there may be a light at the end of the tunnel with this cough (If it is an enalapril cough)

6 comments:

The Mom Jen said...

OMG just reading the title, I was saying in my head "gotta tell her about the Vick's thing!!" I used it during my recent cold/sinus infection/crud and it's a miracle worker I tell you!!

Melissa Muirhead said...

The Vick's thing is brilliant - I so didn't believe it when I was first told it but I used it with my toddlers when they have coughs and suddenly they can sleep and Mummy can sleep. I hope the medication thing gets cleared up too :o)

Rosebud Collection said...

So sorry to hear about Peter and the cough..interesting about the medicine. Have to give the doctor credit..usually they never look to the medicine as causing trouble. Did hear about the Vicks idea before, but never tried it..Will use it now if I ever have to..Hope all is well and the medicine switch will work..will keep checking back to see what the update is..

High Desert Diva said...

For what it's worth, eliminating dairy helped my asthma cough tremendously. I switched to soy everything. Much better.

picciolo said...

Good news about the vicks helping, I hope the doctor can help too
: )

Double D said...

You are the second person I've heard that has actually used the vicks on the feet thing, Barry's sister Kelly used it on her little one, and it worked for her too! I may have to get more Vicks, I'm just about out...

And I hope they can find out if the enalapril is the cause of the cough, that'd be great if they could nip it in the bud.

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