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Showing posts from November, 2010

Medication changes

Medication changes As I was using my asthma disc the other day, it dawned on my that my asthma has been pretty good lately. Hhmm. I was looking over the 'step wise' approach listed in the national guidelines a couple of weeks ago. I know one of the recommendations is to 'step down' medications if your asthma has been in control for 3 months. I think I'll set an appointment with Asthma Doc. I'm on a combination medication right now. Sometimes people can step down to just an inhaled corticosteroid. (Check with your doctor! They're the experts!) I'm wondering, as I look out the window at the snow and cold if this is a good time to step down. This is going into flu season (and pneumonia season for us!) Plus cold weather is a big trigger for me. Shoveling snow yesterday didn't help the lungs much. That's the thing about asthma, for us anyway, it requires constant tinkering with medication. By far the worse time for me is spring and summer, even with a

Water damage

More water damage I say more water damage, because almost exactly when we signed on the dotted line for the house we're in now, things started going wrong. We've had numerous floods in the basement, things shorting out, have nearly started fires with electrical problems, gas line leaks, etc etc. Looks like the washing machine is leaking now. I saw a puddle under the washer last week, hubby AKA 'fix it guy' worked on things for a while and we thought we had it fixed. Then Saturday, I noticed a bubble in the paint on the kitchen wall (located next to the laundry room. ) I knew that wasn't good, and as I was feeling the wall to see if there were any soft spots, my hand went right through the wall. Yep, definite soft spot! So, here we go again. I have this natural aversion to water damage and mold. In our previous house, we had a leak in the roof over our sun room. It took 3 months to fix. They had to tear the wall down to the cinderblock, then sand it, bleach it, and u

Traveling with asthma

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Many of you may be traveling during the holidays. The first thing I pack is all of the kid's medications and equipment. The last thing I want is to get stuck somewhere without the nebulizer. The last time we went on vacation, we packed all the maintenance medication, emergency medication and nebulizer. The only thing we forgot was the liquid fever reducer medicine and cough medicine. And of course, we ended up needing it. It's common to think "'we won't need that". But when you're on vacation, it's difficult to try to find a store, especially when you're in a strange place and don't know where things are located. So, now we pack everything, and if we don't need it, that's okay. I believe in Murphy's law (if something can go wrong, it will). So, I use my own logic and pack everything, thinking if I bring it, I won't need it. If I don't pack it, I will be kicking myself because I'll need it. This spring when we w

Open Airways

Open Airways I'm volunteering with American Lung Association and teaching an Open Airways class at Kitty's elementary school. It's a 6 week class that teaches kids age 8-11 how to manage their asthma. It's really fun, I know most of the kids from volunteering at the school and working there for a few years. Since everyone with asthma is different, it's been fun to go over triggers, when to take their inhaler, how to get help, how to use your inhaler, etc. I hope it helps the school nurse, since she has so many schools to cover, she's only available on Thursday mornings for a few hours. So I tell the kids "if you're going to have an asthma attack, make sure you do it Thursday mornings!" Only kidding, things never work out that tidy, do they? With the unpredictable nature of asthma, who knows when an attack will hit. This way, they know they're not alone - other kids in the school have asthma and deal with the same things they do. In teaching the

Plan ahead

Flash Back Friday - plan ahead! I think it's important to remember that asthma can be unpredictable. I can remember one particular time when we thought we would take Son #2 to the Er "just to get some chest x-rays and make sure he was okay" An hour later, I was standing in his hospital room in the Pediatrics wing, wearing a skirt and high heels. I hadn't thought to change after work, because I was certain he would be treated and released from the Emergency Department. Well, that's what I get for doing my own thinking. I had to ask the nurse for a set of scrubs and some slippers that I could sleep in. They also brought a toothbrush and toothpaste-they were very nice about it. But, since that time, I have learned to plan ahead. If I'm really worried about Son #2 or Kitty, I quickly change into a pair of workout pants, long sleeve t-shirt, sports bra, and socks with sneakers. The perfect outfit to sleep in next to the kid's hospital bed, and still be be pres

Could be worse

Things Could Always Be Worse I was watching the video "Ever After" the other and there's a great line from Anjelica Houston. She is the deliciously evil step mother who says to Cinderella (Drew Barrymore), "We must'nt feel sorry for ourselves, must we? No matter how bad things get, they can ALWAYS (insert shrill trill of the tongue sound) get worse" That has been our mantra. I sometimes have people ask if we think "why me?". It always surprises me when people say that. No we don't say 'why me?'. I'm a fixer. Like most women, when something's wrong, I want to fix it. So, when we're in the doctor's office or pharmacy, or I'm pacing the floor because one of the kids is really bad with their asthma, I think 'how can I fix this?' Sometimes it means multiple breathing treatments with the nebulizer, sometimes I know we need to start Prednisone (again.....), sometimes one of the kids will need a shot of Decadron (ste

Compliance issues

ROTFLMBO As the kids would say, "rolling on the floor laughing my bumb off !" (For those of you who are confused, look at the last post which was authored by Son #2. Okay, I should act like an adult, but that was my response to Son #2 talking about compliance with his asthma medications. Let's face it, I'm a nag. I have to be. Especially when he is on a course of Prednisone, I have to make sure he is taking the correct dose morning and night. That's not a medication where you can afford to miss a dose - from what I know, it affects your adrenal gland. And that can cause some major problems if you stop taking it suddenly. It's important to take it EXACTLY as the doctor prescribes, including tapering off the medication. As for maintenance medication, I feel like I'm always watching to see that the kids take it. If their disc or spacer & inhaler are in the exact same position on the kitchen counter for a day or two, I know they're not taking their me