Writing down this blog to share our personal medical life lesson!!
Iam fortunate and lucky in life that God gave me two precious diamonds, one boy and one girl. I treasure them more than Kohinoor diamonds.
I was employed in Singapore and during the pandemic, there were no travels across the globe. It was 2020, the year many want to forget. Many have their own stories since Corona Virus had given each one of the living form a lesson. Yes, it too gave us an related incident which I wanted to share, so one can benefit.
2020, I was in Singapore and my family in Bengaluru, India. Our son aged 19 that year was getting cough early in the morning and it became a persistent phenomenon with the frequency increasing day by day for about 45 days. That was during the first lock down in India. Those were the days, where visiting hospital was a big task due to Covid. Cough syrups were given but those could not mitigate the cough. He was struggling to breathe after few days. Oximeter was the next guide for my wife to check the amount of oxygen carried in the blood. Slowly the oxygen levels were going steadily down and one afternoon, he could not breathe and walk and when oxygen levels were checked. It had been to a low of 80% against the limit of >95%.
Yes, it was time for my wife to admit him as he couldn’t breathe. He was taken to Apollo hospital and he was not treated immediately since the physician was doubting the symptoms of Covid. He was kept isolated in the Covid ward. The swab result was found Covid negative, still the physician was not convinced that he was negative since the basic symptoms of Covid was in him. Blood sample was then taken for antibody test and that too confirmed that he was Covid negative. Finally, the physician believed that he was not having Covid and something peculiar. Treatment was started by administering corticosteroids and Oxygen pumping through cylinders helped him to breathe again. After few days, he recovered and was discharged and his post treatment was with corticosteroids. Thanks to my wife for bringing our son from the brink.
Again in 2021, when I was at home in India back from SG, the similar incident was resurfacing as it was the second lock down period in India due to Covid. At the beginning itself, we as parents decided to find the exact root cause. We took him to leading Pulmonologist/s in Bengaluru. It was preliminarily identified as allergy and Asthma was ruled out by CT scans and blood tests identifying the IgG antibodies and not IgE antibodies. Specific blood tests were carried out to identify the different allergens. It was narrowed down to the inhalation of air which contains dried pigeon droppings, associated fungus and the condition termed Hypersensitivity pneumonitis. Our house surroundings had lot of pigeons and he was feeding those pigeons too. During pandemic, as we were all confined to home, so he was breathing the same air quite often and had developed this condition. The cough had started during the both the first and second lock down. We temporarily decided to shift our family from Bengaluru to our native town Madurai for a period of one month to confirm the findings by changing the environment. The day we shifted, there was drastic improvement in his breathing and he started recovering quite fast in the new environment. This step of ours sealed and confirmed the root cause. It took lot of time for us to identify the correct root cause for this condition. Then permanently, we shifted our house to a new place for him in Bengaluru and it too worked very well. He had recovered well and is in good health and spirits afterwards.
This blog goes out to all immune sensitive individuals as a lesson learnt from our personal experience and sharing it, so it could help out others too. Later we could see many cases like ours due to the inhalation of air which contains dried pigeon droppings, associated fungus and Hypersensitivity pneumonitis – Immune mediated reaction in susceptible and sensitized people to a large variety of inhaled environmental antigens. At a later chronic stage, the lungs go to an irreversible state and the alveoli become shrunken and breathing becomes difficult. Identification of source is crucial for management and treatment at the acute and sub-acute stages of infection. Elimination of exposure is the most important intervention like relocation of new job and or new home. What to do? Such individuals have inherited the genes which are specific for their sensitivity from their previous generations. Prevention is the cure. Pls do not ignore persistent coughs. Take the correct diagnosis for the effective treatment.
This blog reaches out to all immune sensitive individuals. Take care and lead a happy and healthy life in this beautiful world!!!
Note-The images given for representation in this blog are taken from Google Images. Many thanks for Google.