Re: Cold or Flu

[Guest guest]

Welcome to the group, . If you have to have IgAN in your family, I'm

glad you found your way here.

IgAN in children seems to go through a very active phase, more so than in

adults, I think. This seems to eventually get better. We have many parents

of a child with IgAN here, so, I'm sure you can get a lot of good

information and support.

You should of course ask your son's doctor about what to take for a cold

and/or fever. You may not be able to give him anything that will raise his

blood pressure - usually anything which includes a decongestant. Ninety-nine

percent of the time, you will be told to use ordinary Tylenol. At the very

least, ask a pharmacist who knows everything else he is taking.

You should NOT limit his protein intake unless you're specifically told to

do this by his nephrologist. I don't know what your son's proteinuria is,

but in children, it can often be quite heavy, which would mean he is losing

a lot of his protein. So, it may not be appropriate to limit intake of

protein, and besides, limiting it won't really help. The other thing is that

children need adequate protein for normal growth, etc. Children with chronic

kidney disease already may have a tendency not to grow as much, so you don't

really want to make it worse.

Pierre

Cold or Flu

> Hi All,

>

> I am new to this group. My son (12yrs old) was diagnosed with IGA 1 yr

> ago,

> and right now I am in despaired stage and needed information. He now have

> consistent occult blood 3+ and RBC 3-5. I am a little worry. Which OTC

> medication I should give him for common cold, Tylenol? Which OTC should I

> give for fever? Should I cut down his protein intake? Any feedback is

> appreciated.

>

> Thanks,

>

> in CA

>

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

My son, , was diagnosed in January of this year. He is 13. He

also has a lot of blood in his urine and still a quite a bit of

protein althought it did drop. The protein drop seems to have

stalled now, but we have another appt. with the neph in 2 weeks to

see what the next step is. My son's neph said he should not be

cutting down on anything since he is still in the growing stages.

My son rarely thinks of his IgA and nothing has changed for him

except that the doctor suggested he not play tackle football, but

everything else was okay to do.---

You will find a lot of information and great people on this

website. Do not be afraid or embarrased to ask any questions. The

other thing I have found is that this is much harder on the parents

of the children than it is on the child.

All the best to you and your son,

Elaine

mom to , 13

In iga-nephropathy , " richard C "

wrote:

> Hi All,

>

> I am new to this group. My son (12yrs old) was diagnosed with IGA

1 yr ago,

> and right now I am in despaired stage and needed information. He

now have

> consistent occult blood 3+ and RBC 3-5. I am a little worry. Which

OTC

> medication I should give him for common cold, Tylenol? Which OTC

should I

> give for fever? Should I cut down his protein intake? Any feedback

is

> appreciated.

>

> Thanks,

>

> in CA

>

> _________________________________________________________________

> Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today -

it's FREE!

> http://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/

[Guest guest]

Dear : Don't let the Doctor scare you by saying there is no cure for

this disease. There is no cure for a lot of things. However, there are

things that can be done for this disease.

I have been around for quite a while with this disease that has no cure.

I was on dialysis for 18 years, and after that I have a Kidney transplant now

for 20 years. So, that is 38 years with a disease that has no cure.

However, it hasn't been a bad life either. It has been interesting to say the

least.

So, don't let the Doctor disillusion you, I plan to be around a lot longer

too, God willing.

Sincerely, Colletti

Anjillah@...

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

Pierre already answered your questions - I just wanted to quickly say hello.

My son was also diagnosed when he was 12 (now almost 15). Like your son,

his dipsticks were consistently 3+ for protein. We had a very rocky year

that first year (starting middle school at the same time didn't help

matters), but things really did ease up. Where in California are you?

There's a small cluster of us around the bay area. I'm in Palo Alto.

What do your son's other labs look like? What's his creatinine? Urine

protein? Where is he being treated?

Cy

Cold or Flu

> Hi All,

>

> I am new to this group. My son (12yrs old) was diagnosed with IGA 1 yr

> ago,

> and right now I am in despaired stage and needed information. He now have

> consistent occult blood 3+ and RBC 3-5. I am a little worry. Which OTC

> medication I should give him for common cold, Tylenol? Which OTC should I

> give for fever? Should I cut down his protein intake? Any feedback is

> appreciated.

>

> Thanks,

>

> in CA

>

> _________________________________________________________________

> Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today - it's FREE!

> http://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/

>

>

>

>

> To edit your settings for the group, go to our Yahoo Group

> home page:

> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/iga-nephropathy/

>

> To unsubcribe via email,

> iga-nephropathy-unsubscribe

> Visit our companion website at www.igan.ca. The site is entirely supported

> by donations. If you would like to help, go to:

> http://www.igan.ca/id62.htm

>

> Thank you

>

[Guest guest]

Thank you Cy, , and Pierre for the feedback. I am very glad to have

joined this group for the support. It is very depressing for me for the past

few months not knowing how to help my son.

His Urinalysis lab results are as follow:

Protein 1+ before, now is neg.

Occult blood 3+ consistent, sometimes 2+.

RBC is up and down 3-60, 60 when he gets cold or flu.

Creatinine is normal range of 0.6, but not from urinalysis part, is from the

blood test of lab result. Is Creatinine important? What does it for?

We are in Southern CA (Hacienda Heights). He is being treated in Children

Hospital of Orange County. The neph basically said, there is no treatment

for the disease. They just going to monitor the disease for high blood

pressure and protein. Don't know what to do at this point.

in CA

>

>Reply-To: iga-nephropathy

>To: iga-nephropathy >

>Subject: Re: Cold or Flu

>Date: Tue, 27 Sep 2005 19:38:27 -0700

>

>Hi ,

>

>Pierre already answered your questions - I just wanted to quickly say

>hello.

>My son was also diagnosed when he was 12 (now almost 15). Like your son,

>his dipsticks were consistently 3+ for protein. We had a very rocky year

>that first year (starting middle school at the same time didn't help

>matters), but things really did ease up. Where in California are you?

>There's a small cluster of us around the bay area. I'm in Palo Alto.

>

>What do your son's other labs look like? What's his creatinine? Urine

>protein? Where is he being treated?

>

>Cy

> Cold or Flu

>

>

> > Hi All,

> >

> > I am new to this group. My son (12yrs old) was diagnosed with IGA 1 yr

> > ago,

> > and right now I am in despaired stage and needed information. He now

>have

> > consistent occult blood 3+ and RBC 3-5. I am a little worry. Which OTC

> > medication I should give him for common cold, Tylenol? Which OTC should

>I

> > give for fever? Should I cut down his protein intake? Any feedback is

> > appreciated.

> >

> > Thanks,

> >

> > in CA

> >

> > _________________________________________________________________

> > Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today - it's

>FREE!

> > http://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/

> >

> >

> >

> >

> > To edit your settings for the group, go to our Yahoo Group

> > home page:

> > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/iga-nephropathy/

> >

> > To unsubcribe via email,

> > iga-nephropathy-unsubscribe

> > Visit our companion website at www.igan.ca. The site is entirely

>supported

> > by donations. If you would like to help, go to:

> > http://www.igan.ca/id62.htm

> >

> > Thank you

> >

[Guest guest]

Hi

From the lab results you have, your son's IgAN seems to be fairly mild at

present. Things can change, but right how, he doesn't seem to have a severe

proteinuria problem at all. This is a very good sign. Much of what you hear

about as " treatment " is really intended for treating the proteinuria, not

the IgAN itself. So if there's no significant proteinuria, no high blood

pressure, normal creatinine, it's unlikely that there would be a reason to

upset the applecart. There is really no specific treatment for IgAN, except

maybe fish oil in some cases. The benefits of this are marginal enough that

the value of fish oil is still debated by nephrologists more than a decade

after the first research in this area. Some nephs might say to take it, and

some might not, basically. In terms of treatment, your son's nephrologist is

probably thinking that any risks from various possible medications at this

point would outweigh any possible benefits. This doesn't mean that things

might not change in the future, but it seems pretty stable for now. Some

kids are on steroids, ACE inhibitors, immune suppressing drugs like

Cellcept, Imuran, etc., but these are usually kids who have heavy

proteinuria. I'm not recommending for or against any treatment though. I'm

only trying to show that what your son's neph is doing is reasonable at this

point.

The creatinine you usually want as a quick way of judging kidney function is

the one you have, that is, the one you get from a blood test. That's the

" serum creatinine " . Creatinine is of little importance except as a

convenient, easily-measured indicator of kidney function. The muscles in our

body produce creatinine naturally as part of muscle function. When kidney

function is impaired, less of this creatinine is eliminated by the kidneys,

and so the amount in blood goes up.

Let's hope your son's IgAN stays mild for a long time. It might, you know.

Childhood IgAN sometimes goes into remission.

Pierre

Re: Cold or Flu

> Thank you Cy, , and Pierre for the feedback. I am very glad to have

> joined this group for the support. It is very depressing for me for the

> past

> few months not knowing how to help my son.

> His Urinalysis lab results are as follow:

> Protein 1+ before, now is neg.

> Occult blood 3+ consistent, sometimes 2+.

> RBC is up and down 3-60, 60 when he gets cold or flu.

> Creatinine is normal range of 0.6, but not from urinalysis part, is from

> the

> blood test of lab result. Is Creatinine important? What does it for?

>

> We are in Southern CA (Hacienda Heights). He is being treated in Children

> Hospital of Orange County. The neph basically said, there is no treatment

> for the disease. They just going to monitor the disease for high blood

> pressure and protein. Don't know what to do at this point.

>

> in CA

>

>

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

Those labs sound pretty good! Creatinine (from the blood test of the lab

result) is a waste product that the body produces. It is usually filtered

out by the kidneys - and as such ,is a very important marker for how well

the kidneys are doing their job.

Given those great labs, I can see why the docs are reluctant to treat your

son more aggressively. If urine protein were very high, the docs might

consider prednisone or some other immunosuppressant. However, in your case,

there is not that much to treat (which is good!).

As a parent, I understand how frustrating this disease can be... especially

since there seems to be so little that one can do. I figure our kids are

going to need more stamina and emotional wherewithal than other

non-chronically ill kids - so our focus is on doing stuff that builds up

those kind of muscles. Anything that you can do that expands your son's

life skills and competance will pay off with respect to how he approaches

this disease in his own life and how successfully he handles it. That's one

of biggest things you can give any kid - regardless of illness. While you

may not be able to do much medically, there is an enormous amount you can do

developmentally.

Cy

Cold or Flu

>>

>>

>> > Hi All,

>> >

>> > I am new to this group. My son (12yrs old) was diagnosed with IGA 1 yr

>> > ago,

>> > and right now I am in despaired stage and needed information. He now

>>have

>> > consistent occult blood 3+ and RBC 3-5. I am a little worry. Which OTC

>> > medication I should give him for common cold, Tylenol? Which OTC should

>>I

>> > give for fever? Should I cut down his protein intake? Any feedback is

>> > appreciated.

>> >

>> > Thanks,

>> >

>> > in CA

>> >

>> > _________________________________________________________________

>> > Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today - it's

>>FREE!

>> > http://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/

>> >

>> >

>> >

>> >

>> > To edit your settings for the group, go to our Yahoo Group

>> > home page:

>> > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/iga-nephropathy/

>> >

>> > To unsubcribe via email,

>> > iga-nephropathy-unsubscribe

>> > Visit our companion website at www.igan.ca. The site is entirely

>>supported

>> > by donations. If you would like to help, go to:

>> > http://www.igan.ca/id62.htm

>> >

>> > Thank you

>> >

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

I am behind on emails due to no Internet access on my travels this week so

hopefully by now your son is feeling better. I did want to extend a warm

welcome to you though although I am so sorry your son's diagnosis caused you to

find your way here.

I would ask your Neph about his diet, but normally protein is not restricted

in growing children.

Welcome again,

In a message dated 9/27/2005 4:39:02 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,

richard-513@... writes:

Hi All,

I am new to this group. My son (12yrs old) was diagnosed with IGA 1 yr ago,

and right now I am in despaired stage and needed information. He now have

consistent occult blood 3+ and RBC 3-5. I am a little worry. Which OTC

medication I should give him for common cold, Tylenol? Which OTC should I

give for fever? Should I cut down his protein intake? Any feedback is

appreciated.

Thanks,

in CA

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

A creatinine of 0.6 is really a normal level for your son, so that is good

news. The only typical treatment would be Ace Inhibitors which are known to

be somewhat renal protective, but if his BP is normal or low, perhaps the Neph

does not want to treat with BP meds.

The most important thing is that he is regularly monitored. At that stage I

was checked once a year until I dropped below 50%, then it was every 6

months for years after that.

I do pray your son remains stable for decades to come.

In a message dated 9/27/2005 10:05:06 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,

richard-513@... writes:

Creatinine is normal range of 0.6, but not from urinalysis part, is from the

blood test of lab result. Is Creatinine important? What does it for?

We are in Southern CA (Hacienda Heights). He is being treated in Children

Hospital of Orange County. The neph basically said, there is no treatment

for the disease. They just going to monitor the disease for high blood

pressure and protein. Don't know what to do at this point.

in CA