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Peak Flow Meter

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Posted 8/15/2006 11:20 PM (GMT 0)
I took my son today for a school physical and boy did they do a work up on him.  Blood tests, EKG (to be sure he's not having any adverse reaction to his ADD med), a pulmonary test and showed him how to work a peak flow meter. 

What is your "normal" peak flow meter number and what is it when your asthma starts up?  Normal for him is 400, is that good?

Posted 8/23/2006 1:35 AM (GMT 0)

 Your peak flow meter readings depend on your height and weight and age.

Mel

Posted 8/23/2006 8:34 AM (GMT 0)
when i first went to my asthma specialist, and gp they both showed me how to use one, gave me a chart of graph it on, and told me, between this and this is normal, this is a bad time (attack time period usually), and this is really good,
they should have told you that, call them back and theyll let you know, lol, why would you need the meter if you dont know what the number should be?
good luck

wait- of corse, this is all assuming he has asthma, you didnt mention that :)

Posted 8/23/2006 11:54 AM (GMT 0)
Thanks for the replies, yes he has asthma. It started as seasonal asthma but it turned into true asthma (whether he had true asthma in the first place as to compared to seasonal is a different story!). He has to go in sometime for a full pulmonary test because his smaller airways are not opening like they should so the doc wants to take a peek at him and find out whats going on.

They did give him the normal and not normal range, but I just wanted to compare with others what their normal peak flow is. The problem with him is that he's 15 and he's off the childrens charts height and weight wise so I have to go by the adult chart. The adult chart for children or teens are always off then what it should be. He's in the in between stage.
Posted 8/24/2006 3:42 AM (GMT 0)

Well if my peak flow got to 400, I'd be thrilled (that would be good for me at my age).  Yes, it does depend on your age, etc. what the normal peak flow would be.  Red flag is bad, time to change the asthma medicine or go to the doctor.  Yellow is caution, okay.  Green is you're doing real good on the peak flow.  Mine was bad in the red most the time until I got some new medication from the lung doctor at the hospital. 

I had two pulmonary function tests already showing that I had mild asthma, yet had been told it was chronic asthma. 

Posted 8/24/2006 10:52 PM (GMT 0)
Domaincat, whats the difference between Chronic Asthma and Mild Asthma?
Posted 8/26/2006 12:47 AM (GMT 0)
If I could interject, what I think may be happening is that domaincat was diagnosed with is chronic mild asthma. I got to 400 once but I am usually 300 and consider that ok. Have you thought of directly asking your son's doctor what his/her opinion is? Asthma is a chronic condition. It does not ever go away but kind of lurks in the background. Unfortunately, you can have flare-ups when the asthma makes itself known.
Posted 8/26/2006 2:25 AM (GMT 0)
The doctor said that he had (I can't quite remember the termonology) cough something or other asthma where his main symptom is persistant coughing. I asked her if she thinks that this is no longer seasonal asthma but something more serious and she just sort of shrugged and said she wanted him to do more testing. I think she's waiting to see the results of testing before she concludes anything. Luckily he's never had the wheezing or shortness of breath (nothing major anyway).
Posted 8/26/2006 4:39 PM (GMT 0)
That is lucky...about never having wheezing. Hope he is ok and all his tests come back positively negative.
Posted 8/30/2006 2:07 AM (GMT 0)
I'm 15 as well, and I think I have the same type of asthma as your son! I think the doctor just called it "Coughing Asthma". I really don't know, I was 2 at the time. Lol But anyway, now I'm about 65", so apparently my "green zone" would be about 440. Lately I've been about 260 though. So in my opinion, your son's doing very well... But what do I know! :-) He should be fine though. If he seems all right to you, I think he's doing really great!

-Ashley

Posted 8/30/2006 2:33 AM (GMT 0)
Thanks Ashley! It's good to hear from someone the same age as my son. 260 huh? Isn't that a little low? Are you taking any meds for your asthma?
Posted 8/30/2006 8:10 PM (GMT 0)
Yeah, I am. It is pretty low. We moved recently, and the previous owners had 2 cats, and then my parents did some painting, plus we stayed with some relatives for about a week and the 2 adults smoke and they have a dog, so lately it hasn't been so great! Usually I do a lot better, it's just a bad time.
Posted 8/31/2006 1:52 PM (GMT 0)
it depends how old your son is when i was 7 0r 8 i could gett 200.ihad been consistently getting 350 but it would go alot lower sometimes since i was 11 i am now 14 and my asthma nurse prescribed me a brown beclametasone inhaler 3 months ago and i now get upto 450 on a good day but sometimes my peak flow can still go down to below 300 if i am realy bad
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