Toe has been sick on and off since late October. He caught a cold, recovered, and caught another. The CF team put him on antibiotics for two weeks and when he was finished, a dry, barking cough appeared. He'd cough one day and then two or three days would go by with nothing. Then we'd hear the cough for a few days. This went on through the holidays. Our CF team became concerned by the longevity of the cough. It does not sound like the normal CF exacerbation which is normally pretty juicy and productive (think smoker's cough). This is more of a dry, barking cough similar to an allergic cough.
Toe has asthmatic inflammation in his lungs and we already give him antihistamine, Albuterol, Flo-Vent, and Nasacort. The team decided to try Prednisone, a steroid, to see if this was an allergic reaction. The idea was that if it was an allergy, the steroid would clear it up. We tried the Prednisone for five long days (oh, the mood swings!) but it did not help.
There are many confusing parts to this cough: it doesn't sound like an exacerbation, alsoToe's lung function is fantastic - absolutely normal. But the cough just won't go away and in addition, Toe has had low appetite and been tired all of the time. So, we are now trying a two week course of a broader antibiotic. It has been challenging in that this antibiotic requires tricky timing with some of his other medications (no vitamins two hours before or six hours after the drug, taken twice daily, no milk products with the med), but we are working it out... Toe's energy seems to have improved. The cough is still lingering. We've finished week one of two... we'll see how this goes.
We have another appointment next week with the CF team. If this is not under control, there is a possibility Toe will need to be admitted to the hospital for IV antibiotics. We're just trying to take things a day at a time right now. He has been to school since Monday this week (today is Thurs), which is fantastic because last week he only made it one day... We're considering that a win.
