The history of Antoine, 4 years old
To you all who arrives on this page and who are in the concrete search of information, you who do not know if one can still believe in it, you who - I hope - will read the history of Antoine; I wish you to find the desire and confidence to take the step, for your wellbeing or that of your children.
Antoine was born in October 2004 and got his first “small bronchiolitis” during winter 2004/2005.
Antoine is 4 years old today
He is born in October 2004 and underwent his first “small bronchiolitis” during winter 2004/2005.
No surprise, the media had warned us very well: the infants are most fragile, don’t worry physical therapists are ready to use their respiratorial physio, even during the weekends, all troubles will be arranged at spring.
We were lucky… we did not need to go to the emergency.
At the age of ten months, a cough appeared
A strange cough, a unique cough, a morning cough.
Every morning, (or after each nap), Antoine started with a session off 15/20 minutes of coughing. We talked about it with the podiatrist who pronounced the word “reflux”. The GER thus became our enemy.
Via the private clinic of Boulogne Billancourt specialized in digestive problems, Antoine underwent the traditional examinations: endoscopy + pH measurement.
- a backward flow = treatment by Mopral,
After 1 month without convincing results, the search continues: bronchoscopy.
Verdict of the lung specialist:
- a tracheomalacy (physiognomic problem) = will get better during growth
- an infection with B streptococcus = treatment by Augmentin. AUGMENTIN… one week of AUGMENTIN (and treatments of respiratorial physio) and 4 months waking up with an erasing brass band.
Hope is found
Antoine at 14 months
At a rhythm of 6-8 weeks, Antoine relapses. Again, we use Augmentin during 1 week + respiratory treatment by a physiotherapist and life gets back on its normal rhythm, until the next episode.
Antoine at 22 months
We leave Paris for a more exotic destination in Asia: Singapore.
We thus leave unfortunately our “medical environment” and start again at zero.
In Singapore, the temperature is all year round thirty degrees… but that does not prevent Antoine from starting to cough again.
Fortunately Augmentin calls also Augmentin in English!
The rhythm of 6-8 weeks is reduced now to 4-6 weeks…
The week with antibiotics becomes not so effective anymore, time to take things in our hands again.
September 2007 he is nearly 3 years old
We are directed towards a specialist in asthma in Singapore and the word ASTHMA appears for the first time in our life. Who says Asthma, says Ventolin, Flixotide, Pulmicort.
We thus discover the baby inhaler, the rhythm of the “puffs” in the morning and the evening.
Puffs with Flixotide morning and evening.
Puffs with Ventolin in case of coughing.
The effect seems immediate and we live with Antoine during 6 months of respite
Half March 2008, he is 3 years and a half
The cough gets back. Ventolin doesn’t work, one week passes, ten days, …..
It gets worse and worse. We are stressed to go to sleep, especially for the wake up that comes after it.
Singulair gets introduced.
After one month of crises. Antoine gets better. We are halfway April
Begin May 2008
Gets worse again (is this possible?)
At the beginning of May 2008 I type some magic key words on Internet and discover the site Asthma reality.
I devour it. I am convinced.
Not any expert in Singapore… doesn’t surprise me.
On the other hand Jacques is there and we are “live” despite of the 12 hours of time difference, to talk about Antoine.
I try to talk to him about THIS cough, and to make him understand I send him a recent video footage.
This video, I would like to share with you. It is the only way which could make react the doctors.
Jacques answers very quickly. He advises and helps us, and pushes to do some examinations. He initially thinks about a possible nosocomial infection, linked to a period that Antoine stayed at the hospital, when he was born, at the neonatal service.
OK for all the examinations in the world, but it is necessary that Antoine gets better to do these examinations.
From the 01th of May until the 25th of June 2008 Antoine underwent his longest and most intensive crisis.
We have to start giving prednisolone. A strong treatment that doctors do not want to give more than 2 sessions per year to a child, whereas Antoine already received 2 treatments in 15 days.
At the end of June 2008
Second bronchoscopy. There are no infections but traces of grease, probably coming from food.
Again one speaks about GASTRO ESOPHAGEAL REFLUX.
Back to the beginning then ?
Begin of July 2008
Second endoscopy which shows a light hiatal hernia.
We are send back with MOPRAL but we will never give this again to Antoine.
I am Zen, I take that with much retreat, because we return to France half July for a few weeks of holidays, and I have three appointments fixed with Frederic Vanpoulle in Tours
Three appointments which will be engraved in our memories forever
Frederic was attentive, soft, realistic, sure; explaining every gesture to Antoine (and to his parents!).
The last appointment at the end of July
We are halfway October and it is now two months and a half that Antoine doesn’t cough anymore and that he is in a great shape. Life in Singapore continues its way with a force and a determined believe because we have found THE solution.
Thanks Jacques and Frédéric.
If you have some questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us (in french) : the parents of Antoine."
To visit he family blog (french).
Note
Thanks to the mother of Antoine to have written this testimony concerning the problems of her son.
For a good comprehension of this very particular case, encountered for the first time in 25 years of my career, I have to give some complementary explanations.
The cough of Antoine
At the beginning, I immediately was thinking about a nosocomial infection, seen the history of the child : hospitalization when he was born. Everybody knows that in hospital services around the world, bacteria’s can be found who are resistant against any type of antibiotics and disinfectants, and that contamination can be made very easily, even during a simple consultation for a test. So I advised the mother to do an examination of the phlegm, but since Antoine didn’t know how to get them out of his lungs, I advised to do a bronchoscopy by an optic fiber, with aspiration of the phlegm. This could be examined for the appearance of certain bacteria’s, followed by an antibiogram to know its resistance. In Singapore, medicine is rather different than in France, and the professor who was contacted, immediately accepted to proceed to do such an examination. For him this was a logic step in this type of pathology.
The results showed no bacteria at all, so I had to think it all over again and looked again at the video to make a better analysis of Antoine’s cough. Every time that I looked at it, the emotion was the same : « how could they let this little kid coughing during years without thinking further than Ventolin, Mopral and Augmentin ? »
Only one possible explanation : routine and certainly the conditioning of the doctors to the pharmaceutical industry !
This type of symptoms = this type of medicament.
So he coughs (for one time) = reflux = Mopral = no effect
They look for something else : infection = Augmentin (certainly justified) = getting better.
He coughs again = Augmentin = it doesn’t hold that long : he coughs = Augmentin … nearly without any result.
Because he is growing up, let’s see, think about an asthmatic : it is asthma which causes the cough !
What a tremendous logic, let’s go :Ventolin, Flixotide, Pulmicort, Singulair !
In fact, not any of these products ceases the cough which shows very well that it was no asthma !
Meanwhile, time passes by, and the child as well as the parents live in a real calvary, being lucky that they were not send to a shrink with the explanation that it was because there was too much maternal love which made the child coughing as a kind of defense !
It wasn’t the cough
It was in fact, rather a long noisy spasm preceding to a vomit. And suddenly, I realized that I behaved exactly in the same way when it was necessary for me to vomit (very seldom, fortunately, because I have this type of monstrous spasms which twists me painfully in the belly). I saw and re-examined this video to make myself certain about my deductions
The origin of this noisy spasm
For those who don’t know my writings very well, I explain that the Glossopharyngeal nerve possesses a « defensive » function which can provoke or a cough or vomiting in case of necessity.
In the case of false asthma, which is very often preceded by a coughing attack like in the case of Téo, the malposition of the first cervical provokes an irritation of this fiber in its pathway, which is pursued as real information coming from its endings.
This irritation provokes a sensation to compare with an irritation caused by a bread crumb wedged in the throat, with paresthesias (swarming) which immediately start a coughing reaction to expel it. Except that there is no bread crumb… and that the cough will increase the irritating impact on the nerve fiber, giving the feeling that the foreign body is getting more and more important… until the ultimate defensive reaction : a laryngospasm which will considerably decrease the passage of air and gives a big difficulty in breathing-in. That’s the FALSE asthma : FALSE because the real asthma touches the bronchi, coming from a bronchospasm which will give a problem in breathing-out the air.
When I was in Tunisia, invited by a doctor, we went to a hospital so that I could explain what I had discovered, and to demonstrate this on one or more asthmatic patients. We saw two asthmatics and after them they presented me a child who vomited for the smallest contrariety (strange because such a case was not planned at all).
Reflexions were made, I examined the child and saw that he presented exactly the same type of desequilibration as in the false asthmatic cases. Only, when I did my test for the first cervical which normally produces immediately a dry laryngeal cough, I obtained this time a vomiting ! This was no problem, I proceeded to his total re-equilibration, released his first cervical and finally, remade my tests… no more vomiting.
Bingo ! The irritation of the Glossopharyngeal nerve provokes in very rare cases a vomiting reflex instead of a coughing reflex. Why ? I don’t know. Maybe because of a very specific malposition of this vertebra ?
The case of Antoine was slightly different : without a real cough, with a violent spasm which “would precede a vomiting” and now, with the passing, I am persuaded that it is that which made him getting up substances coming from the stomach.
Not a true backward gastro-esophageal flow on which Mopral had no effect.
I am particularly happy and proud at the same time to once again show the exactitude of my work and the competence of my experts who, when we encounter a particular case, or simply more difficult than the routine, they immediately contact with me to establish a work and research plan.
It is extremely regrettable that doctors do not use any more basic clinical examinations, that they do not argue on possible causes, and that they are stubborn to remain prescribers lobotomized by the industry.
