Low HR on steroids and albuterol

[Caty]

Nate has had a pretty bad cold. He's pretty stuffed up, tons of secretions, lots of coughing. We started ProAir last weekend was put on Orapred on Tuesday. We've been suctioning him a lot at night but he's been holding his sats really well and seems to be handling the cold very well.

Other than- Wednesday night his HR dipped below 50bpm several times and hovered around 50bpm for about 5 hours. Same for last night. When he's awake it's normal but after he's been asleep for a few hours, it drops. If he's on a steroid and albuterol, wouldn't his HR be high?!

His vent pulm wanted him seen locally so my mom took him in (because as these things happen, my husband had outpatient surgery this morning :rolleyes:). His ped said some kids with colds will drop their HR while asleep. He was going to talk with the vent pulm and call me but I haven't heard from him. He told my mom not to worry; Nate just has a bad cold. I really wish I could have been there to grill him. Anyone with insight about low HR on a steroid? Nate's at my parents' and fine, but the mommy guilt is kicking in that I'm not with him "just in case."

[Alex's mom]

Seems kind of strange. Alex has been on proair and orapred a few times and it didn't increase or decrease her hr.

[TommysDad]

When Tommy's on CiproDex (the Dex is the steroid), his heart rate does drop into the 50's. He even had a sleep study done once and coincidentally he was on CiproDex at the time. The sleep study tech was actually concerned, but after he checked things out, they said that was actually pretty common for vent patients.

But none the less, we still get concerned, and if it drops too far down, we're like "Wake-Up Tommy!" and shake him a bit to alter his sleep state. But it goes up for a second or two, then he drifts back into a deeper sleep and his heart rate drops back down again. The beeping of the pulse ox alarm usually helps alter his sleep state, too, and helps bring it back up.

~MAGGIE