Dry cough - mycoplasma?

[GraceUnderPressure]

My ds14 has been having a dry cough for months. We had a bout of something last year during swim lessons that I believe may have been mycoplasma, but since ds8 (who had it the worst) tested negative, no myco treatment.

 

A little while after that exposure, we kept having cold-type symptoms off & on for maybe a 5 wk cycle (it'd go away & then come back over & over again). I started us on lomatium & that seemed to stop whatever that was. Then we had a bad cold or bronchial type bug about 5 or 6 mos ago (I think?) and ds14 had a bad cough that has never really gone away since.

 

I tried some of his older brother's zithromax for a couple of weeks because he had a little extra to spare at the time, but noticed no difference in the cough.

 

Is there anything besides myco that can cause something like this? Is there a natural treatment we can try as we have absolutely no money to spare right now to take another child to a PANDAS specialist? (We're not even sure if we'll be able to afford the treatment given to us by the LLMD we'll be seeing in October)

 

~Grace

[kimballot]

Mycoplasma that is untreated or undertreated can turn into asthma symptoms. Allergies can also trigger asthma symptoms. Has DS14 been tested for mycoplasma titers and/or been evaluated for asthma / allergies?

[smartyjones]

Is there anything besides myco that can cause something like this? (We're not even sure if we'll be able to afford the treatment given to us by the LLMD we'll be seeing in October)

 

~Grace

 

 

not suggesting this is your issue -- just sharing ours.

 

ds9, second pandas child, was a generally healthy kid. at age 3.5, he had trouble with ear infection that wouldn't go away. had ear tubes, adenoids out at age 4. had to take one tube out about 2 years later -- about age 6. (wow -- from memory, could be really off on timing). anyway, at the time of the operation to take out, he had been having a cough for a number of weeks. i took him in when we were thinking about that operation b/c wanted to make sure nothing was up before it. cough seemed to be worse with exercise -- but still not really troublesome, just noticeable. dr found nothing -- suggested exercise induced asthma and suggested using inhaler, if that cleared it up, that made diagnosis. i thought this was stupid and didn't want to use inhaler and use that as diagnostic. month or so later, had pre-op physical, still cough. dr suggested clariton. seemed to help. had operation, all okay. cough went away. (not due to operation, just went away)

 

fast forward, around 2.5 years. ds has pandas symptoms - separation anxiety, inapporpriate reactions, bad thoughts at night. went to our integrative MD who does a kind of sort of ART testing. sees strep, all tic borne illnesses. begin homeopathic treatment. ds has extreme shortness of breath and poor endurance with exercise. traditional med says exercise induced asthma. i think pretty classic babesia symptoms. i don't know if just happened at this time or treatment pushed a herx-like reaction. ds said he'd had trouble 6 mths earlier at baseball camp with keeping up with other kids. after inital month or so of extreme trouble, ds still had trouble keeping up with peers with endurance. now, 6 mths into treatment, is back on track, seemingly in line with peers.

 

was that cough years back somehow related to other issues? no way to know for sure. but it does make me wonder if it could have been. is the cough you're speaking of at all related to exertion? have you checked out babesia symtpoms as they relate to breathing issues?

[sf_mom]

Smarty is right. Babesia can cause a chronic dry unproductive cough. So can Bartonella and Chlamydia Pneumoniae.

 

We've done extensive testing with all our family members.... Frankly, we were worried everyone in the household had Lyme. Thankfully we have one healthy person that I can depend on... my wonderful DH. However, he does have high unresolving strep titers ASO 283 and anti-DNase B of 980. We felt there was some other infection holding him back from resolving the strep. His only symptom right now is an unproductive cough at night. We tested for HLA markers, mold, Lyme, Myco, Bartonella, Chlamydia pneumoniae, etc. The only thing he is positive for 'technically' is Strep and Chlamydia Pneumoniae.... there is some indication of Bartonella based on blood smear. Our LLMD believes the indication of Bartonella on the smear is actually the Chlamydia Pneumoniae showing up in the smear. He is unwilling to treat with antibiotics because my husband is physically very healthy. His recommendation was to use the BEG Nasal spray (need Dr.'s order) for strep/staph potentially persistent in nasal cavity and Transfer Factor Multi-Immune Plus to help his body fight infection better.

 

So you could try something like 'Colloidal Silver Nasal Spray'.... and Transfer Factor Multi Immune Plus to see if it helps. Regardless your son will benefit from ongoing assaults of additional infections by using the spray and transfer factor.

 

http://www.iherb.com/Sovereign-Silver-Bio-Active-Colloidal-Silver-Hydrosol-Vertical-Spray-Top-10-ppm-2-fl-oz-60-ml/4862?at=0

 

https://www.researchednutritionals.com/store/item.cfm?code=CRN103

 

-Wendy

Edited July 11, 2011 by SF Mom

[GraceUnderPressure]

DS14 has PDD-NOS (he's pretty definitely mercury injured - I cluelessly had a "silver" amalgam replaced while I was 5mos pregnant with him & his symptoms are completely consistent with the EPA's 1997 report on low level chronic mercury exposure) - he has always been IgG allergy prone (quite a few food intolerances) & does have a mild IgE dust allergy. I have not had him evaluated because our family dr tested my ds8 for myco p & I was really unimpressed because they did not seem to have any clue what they were doing. I have no confidence in their test results -- or their ability to treat it properly.

 

Only our ds19 who is a definite Lyme & possible myco PITAND has had testing done thru a PANDAS dr, but we think the whole family (7 of us) has Lyme (as well as possible myco) to some extent. It's just that our money is so tight right now, we can barely afford to treat our oldest who has it to the point he's dysfunctional (Tourette's).

 

I was considering trying to copy the treatment ds19 gets in October for the rest of us, depending how $ it is. DS19 came up neg for babesia thru Igenex, but that might be a false neg, right?

 

What else is used for myco besides zithromax? Not sure if ds14's non-respose to zithro means it's probably not myco or it's a myco that doesn't respond to zithro or is it possible that ~2 weeks was not long enough to see some improvement? Is there a natural treatment for either myco or babesia that could at least help start the fight or keep the damage at bay till we can afford to get ds14 treated?

[GraceUnderPressure]

Thanks, Wendy! What is BEG nasal spray?

[GraceUnderPressure]

Oh, and here's a "duh!" question, I'm sure - we are currently fighting mold in our house because of an apparently long term leak(s) under our kitchen sink. I only just found it about a month ago now, with mold growing on the presswood of the cabinet & have been working to clean things up & then get it remediated. Is it possible that it is a cause of ds14's cough as opposed to just an aggravant?