My daughter just finished her 6 months treatment for primary complex. She gain weight and symptoms of PTB had been disappeared including afternoon fever, chest tighten, fatigue and prolonged cough that’s why her pediatrician no longer her required to have recurrent chest x-ray. According to her pediatrician, it is not necessary since some scars in her lung is still there and can be healed for 2 to 3 years.
Primary complex is now one of the leading diseases here in the Philippines among children. It is also known as tuberculosis in children. It is an infection cause by mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria. Kids are prone to this disease if he has weak immune system. Based on my observation other reason for spreading the disease is due to unpleasant air. So it is necessary for your kids not to bring to crowded place. The main symptom of PTB is weight loss or slowing in gaining weight. Other symptoms include heavy coughing, loss of appetite, chest pain, fatigue, afternoon fever and night sweats.
Primary complex is confirmed through PPD test and chest x-ray. Parents need not to worry if their children were diagnosed with primary complex because it is curable as long as they make sure that their kids will be taken their anti-tb meds religiously and not to escape for better compliance of the medication.
Almost every month, we visited my pedia’s daughter since she always has a productive cough and cold. Her pedia always prescribes loraped for her cold and meptin for cough and sometimes pred10. After taking these medicines the symptoms of cough, cold and chest pain were reduced but not treated. So I decided not to go to her pedia and just go to traditional healer. He said that her lung is just full of hard phlegm so medicine she taken just calm the symptoms but not remove the cause. He healer advised her to take oregano to break the phlegm in her lungs.
The healer advised to boil seven leaves of oregano, then add calamansi and drink it like a tea. I observed that she have no longer chest pain while coughing and her cold is reduced. She has to take oregano for two weeks, three times per week. I hope that her cold and cough gone forever.
By the way, my daughter is also taken medicine for primary complex for about five months now. I hope and pray that after six months, her primary complex also completely treated. As parents, our heart is broken every time we see our children are taking medicine for a longer time. Sometimes, herbal medicines are also good for common cold and cough.
During rainy days, flu is very prevalent since our immune system is very low that’s why kids are easily catch cold and flu. Cold is very common during rainy season due to fluctuation in temperature. As parent, we should be aware to take precautionary measure in order to prevent cold and flu.
Some tips to prevent cold and flu
- Make sure to bring rain gear such as umbrella and rain coat with hooded jacket to protect yourself from rain.
- Bring handkerchief to cover your mouth every time there is someone sneezing beside you.
- Increasing the intake of vitamin C because it can reduce the severity of cold.
- Always make a habit of washing hands frequently because most viruses spread through direct contact.
- Don’t touch your face because flu viruses enter through eyes, nose and mouth.
- Drink plenty of water to flush out any toxins.
- Consume more fresh fruits and vegetables.
- Prepare more nutritious meal for your family and avoid eating out.
- Keep away from sick person to protect yourself from getting viruses.
- Avoid overstressed and fatigue because body resistance can weakens it.
- Get enough sleep to regain energy and strength
Children are more vulnerable to cold and flu during rainy season since their immune system is not yet developed as that of adults. So parents make sure to prepare meals that have natural immunity booster which include green leafy vegetables, citrus fruits and vitamin C.
My daughter was diagnosed with Primary Complex that’s why her pediatrician was required me and my husband to have chest x-ray to be able to know the source of infection. So I asked our general physician regarding the signs and symptoms of tuberculosis since primary complex is also cause by tuberculosis bacteria known as mycobacterium tuberculosis.
The typical signs and symptoms of TB, tuberculosis are persistent or chronic cough with sputum production and with blood if in the advanced stage, fatigue, lack of appetite, unexplainable weight loss, fever and night sweats. The mode of transmission of tuberculosis is mainly by droplet infection and droplet nuclei produced when an adult or patient who has tuberculosis coughs. When coughing, speaking or sneezing, droplets are expelled into the air. Droplets dry out quickly but the bacteria can remain airborne for hours.
Chest xray and PPD skin test are used to diagnose tuberculosis. Also, it can diagnose sputum microscopic examination. Treatment of Tuberculosis includes taking antibiotics such as isoniazid, rifampicin, pyrazinamide and ethambutol. Pyrazinamide and ethambutol were taken everyday for two months while isoniazid and rifampicin were taken everyday for six months or more. Mycobacterium is very strong bacteria so it is important not to skip a dose because bacteria will become resistant to the antibiotics and it will become difficult to treat. Antibiotic resistance means that the medicine can no longer kill the bacteria that they meant to fight.
Thanks that the result of our chest x ray is negative from tuberculosis. According to our result lungs are clear.
My 5 years old daughter was diagnosed from primary complex 20 days ago, she is now taking HZ2 pedia kit from Unilab. It contains Rifampicin, pyrazinamide and isoniazid. At first the pedia dosage for the three meds are 5 ml she weighted 19 kilos, but now she loss 2 kilos that’s why she down to 4 ml.
Rifampicin and isoniazid should be taken empty stomach. That means it should be taken 1 hr or 2 hrs before meal or after meal while pyrazinamide can be taken anytime. Some parents would prefer to drink the two meds before breakfast but in my case I prefer to take it between breakfast and lunchtime. At second visit, our pedia advise it to take at bedtime. It is important to take these three medicines religiously meaning don’t skip and should be taken everyday for the entire six months. If you skip, bacteria may become resistance to these drugs and later on needs more other strong medicines.
Pyrazinamide is taken for only two months while Rifampicin and isoniazid is taken for six months. If there is no improvement, it will have an extension of three months for the total of nine months. One indication that your child is cured from primary complex is weight gain and no other symptoms of PTB.
The symptoms of primary complex include enlarged lymph nodes in the neck area, prolonged cough that doesn’t resolve with treatment, low grade afternoon fever, weight loss, loss of appetite. In order to diagnose primary complex is by positive PPD or tuberculin test and chest xray. If there is positive PPD and negative xray, the child should is also require to take one type of anti-TB medicines which is the isoniazid for six months also. PPD or tuberculin test positive result means that there is an TB bacteria exposure that why it is also recommended to take medicine for prevention.
If your kid is diagnosed primary complex, it is essential to treat it immediately without delay because untreated tuberculosis may lead to complications which can be life threatening.
For the couples of months, my daughter experience recurrent colds and cough. If there is a fever, we brought him to the physician and he advised to take antibiotic. After taking the complete course of antibiotic, my daughter will heal for sometime but after a month there is another cold and cough that is on and off. So, we decided to take her to the pediatrician to closely monitor her health.
Her pediatrician advised her to take loradine phenylephrine, meptin, pred10 and co-amoxiclav. After taking these medicines, the symptoms are temporary disappear so her pediatrician decided to have chest xray examination to further evaluation of the symptoms.
When I and my husband see the x-ray result, it impression result is “bilateral primary (PTB), we feel sad because we knew that medicine for primary complex should be taken for 6 months or more. A lot of sacrifice and perseverance is necessary in order to a child to fully cure because a tuberculosis bacterium which is the mycobacterium tuberculosis is hard to kill. Also, the pedia advised us to both of us should have x-ray to determine if we were infected.
Primary complex is not contagious but tuberculosis in adult is very contagious so it is important to stay away from adult who have positive xray result for TB. But of course, if adult is taking TB medicine for about 2 to 3 weeks, tuberculosis is no longer contagious.
Yesterday, I decided to take my daughter to the pediatrician to check her because of her recurrent persistent cold and cough. Her cold is on and off for almost two months. Although she already taken an antibiotic, co-amoxiclav natrovox last month. Me and my husband is always caution in giving antibiotic because we know that this can be harmful since good bacteria will also destroy. The pedia suspects that she has an asthma and allergy so she gave four types of medicines such as Loradine Phenylephrine HCI, Meptin, Prednisone 10 and co-amoxiclav. These medicines should be take twice a day for five days except her antibiotic, co-amoxiclav to be take for seven days. On the fifth day, she will have her follow-up check up to see if there is an improvement. The pedia said that if there is no improvement, she will have an x-ray to properly diagnose the cause of her cold and cough.
As a mother, I really worried when I feed my daughter with many medicines but I don’t have a choice but to give her in order to treat her illnesses. I just hope that after five days of taking her medicines, her condition will be improved.
This is the first time that I have a boil; at first I thought that it is only insect bite such as mosquito or ant bite. I apply petroleum jelly but there is no improvement that’s why I google it and I found it that it is like a boil so I can’t believe it at first. I observed for the following days, it is very painful, sore and swelling so I decided to take mefenamic acid for anti inflammatory purposes and as a pain reliever. It is started as reddened tender area at my buttocks and as day passes it becomes firm and hard. I know that mefenamic acid is not a solution for this boil, I just take it once since it is not recommended.
I apply hot compresses by soaking cotton with hot water and apply it in the area of the boil. I noticed that there is small pus coming out of the boil, according to my husband these pus are the head of the boil, it should come out so that it can be healed. I really hate this boil aside from being painful, it is very embarrassing since I was not be able to sit properly and I have to change bandage every now and then.
Thanks to my husband’s cousin Daisy who recommended to take antibiotic, Cloxacilline I don’t need to wait to come out the boil’s head completely because after three days of taking cloxacilline and hot compresses, the boil heals in his own and no head anymore.
Thanks to our neighbor ate Arlene for giving us betel leaf to relief the stomach pain of my daughter. Betel leaf is also known as samat leaf here in the Philippines, according to lola Maring, it is a herbal medicine which treats constipation, sore throat, headache, wounds, inflammation, stomach disorder, cold and congestion. Betel leaf is a climbing plan or a kind of creeper. It is a slender, heart shaped leaf. It has medicinal properties and ayurvedic treatment. I apply castor oil on the betel leaf and warms it lightly and put on the stomach to treat my daughter’s stomachache.
Betel leaf is applied to relief headache because it has cooling and analgesic properties. It also treats nervous pains, nervous exhaustion and debility by drinking the juice of few betel leaf with a teaspoon of honey because it is consider as a good tonic. Teaspoon can be taken twice a day. In addition, it is consider diuretic which help to ease urination. The extracted juice of betel leaf can be applied on the wound and it should be wrapped over and bandaged. During lactation, you can apply leaves smeared with oil on the breast to help secretion of milk. It also treats sore throat and use to relief of ear aches.
Last week, my sister in law visits us and told us she found blood in her urine. Of course, her initial reaction is so nervous so went to the doctor for check up. She had urinalysis and found out that she has urinary tract infection. She said that the cause of her UTI is due to lack of water consumption since she forgot to drink more water because she is very busy with her work.
By the way, hematuria is the presence of blood in the urine. It could mean that there is a bleeding in the urinary tract including kidney, ureters, urethra, bladder and prostate gland for men. It can indicate different problems such as urinary tract infection, kidney infection, kidney stone injury, enlarged prostate in men and kidney or bladder cancer. Additional symptoms are painful urination, abdominal pain, and fever. Gross hematuria means that the blood in visible in the eye while microscopic hematuria is only visible under microscopic and found in urinalysis. However, if you notice blood in the urine, it is important to seek medical evaluation to know the underlying causes.
The most common causes of hematuria among women are urinary tract infection because women are more prone of UTI than men. It may happen when bacteria are enter the body through the urethra and begin to multiply in your bladder. Kidney or bladder stone also cause to have blood in urine both gross and microscopic hematuria. Crystals from concentrated urine is forming and become small and hard stone in the walls of your kidney or bladder. It is painless unless it can cause a blockage or are being passed and cause excruciating pain. To prevent and avoid both urinary tract infection and kidney or bladder stone, always drink water most especially during summer season.
