My Life as an Asthma Mom

So what's the Winning With Asthma ? It's a way to help out the school nurses by having other people know what to do if a student has an asthma attack. I just read an article in our local paper, and I am stunned by how hard the school nurses work. I know they don't just take care of asthma, they have to deal with students that have diabetes, seizure disorders, ADHD, and developmental delays just to list a few. Then, what about the student who falls and hits their head while on the monkey bars? Or someone who falls of the swing and breaks their arm? In our area, there are 3 school districts. One school district has a nurse/student ratio of 1:6,004, another has 1:4,222 and another has 1:7,643. What do you do if your son or daughter has an asthma attack? Is the school nurse there?    For Kitty, she's fine as long as she has an asthma attack on Thursday between 8:00 am and 12:00 pm. For Son #2, he can have an asthma attack on Mondays between 8:00 am and 12:00 pm. That's...

  I was just reading on Web Md about a new study released by the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI)  It says that asthma may increase your risk of developing diabetes and heart disease. Great, one more thing to worry about! I'm not sure if this link will work - http://www.webmd.com/asthma/default.htm   It seems that the inflammation is the common link with asthma, diabetes and heart disease.  The link between COPD and diabetes has been shown in many studies. (COPD includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema).  So they say that the link between asthma and diabetes is "plausible". They also say steroids can throw someone into a diabetic state. But it doesn't say for how long someone is using steroids.  Some people do a short 5 day burst, others use a low dose as a "preventative measure". I guess the caution here would be just to keep an eye on yourself or your kids.  WebMd lists the usual symptoms for diabetes as increased thirst an...

Mold Dogs I was at a performance for hubby and Son #1's bagpipe and celtic band, when I saw an ad for "Mold Dogs" pop up on the screen listing sponsors. What in the world is a "mold dog?" I went to their website, and it said they apparently have a dog that is trained to sniff out and detect mold. It would be a less messy way to detect where the mold is in the walls than what we had to do-have the certified contractor rip away parts of the ceiling and wall until there was no more mold! (Of course they were wearing hazmat suits at the time and had professional grade respirators on) It's well know that dogs have a much keener sense of smell and taste then humans. I once read an article that said dogs don't just smell a cake baking, they can smell the eggs, sugar, vanilla, etc. So it makes sense that they could detect mold. Other dogs have been trained to detect cancer, seizures, even death. I can't vouch for the company, I don't know anything abou...

   Hubby and I were talking to Son #1 last night, our college aged son is moving out and the new state he's going to is VERY green. Which makes me think allergies. Great. Of course as a mom I am worried, and he is on his last vial of serum for his allergy shots. He's been doing shots for 5 years now (and he never made it past once a week injections.) Some people are lucky enough to decrease to every other week, but not us.  When we started allergy shots for each one of the kids, they had to go twice a week, and get 2 injections each time. Yup, 4 injections per week. It sometimes feels like we live there. In fact last Friday morning, Son #1 went to shots at Asthma Doctor's office to see Amazing Shot Nurse before work. Then after school, Hubby picked up Kitty to take her for allergy shots while Son #2 was getting his Xolair injection. (He's already finished is 5 years worth of allergy shots.) But, they seem to be helping. We can stop and pet Wonderful Neighbor's minia...

  So, as the kids get older, how do you let go? I say "kids" but I actually have a son in college. And another son is driving.    So how do you let them take care of themselves and asthma? Without hovering? We've been dealing with asthma for 11 years now. And it's been an adventure. Countless trips to the doctor, Emergency department and there are the 14 times they have been hospitalized. So it isn't as though I am worrying for no reason. But there comes a time when you can't look over their shoulder and watch what they are doing. They know about asthma and what their triggers (or what causes their asthma) to flare up.    They know what medicine they are supposed to take. And they know how to call in refills and drive to the pharmacy and pick up the next prescription. They can even make doctors appointments all by themselves! But do they recognize when they are in trouble, and do they do something about it? The sound of coughing still makes my heart race. Some...

One of the things I found that helps reduce dust in my house is to keep everything organized and enclosed.    I found CD containers from IKEA, and they're cheap! I think I paid $3.99 for the two pack. They have a lot of fun colors which are important to an Interior designer!    I have a stand that holds my TV and underneath are several different shelves, which I put the boxes in. I have my music organized according to category (I worked in a music store while I was in college, so it's habit to keep it categorized and alphabetized.)   It works out great, the TV stand is easy to keep clean, the surfaces wipe right off. And the boxes keep everything organized and it really reduces the dust - which is one of my worst asthma triggers.  Of course, I pull the boxes out and dust the shelves and tops of the boxes. Anything I can do to cut down on triggers for our asthma, I will do it. It seems to work better than a bunch of CD's on a shelf collecting dust.  ...

    Flash Back Friday Most people I talk to about asthma don't seem to think it's a very big deal. I was thinking back to one of the times Son #2 was being discharged from the hospital after a 3 day stay with pnemonia. Poor little guy had red, puffy cheeks from steroid IV's, he was coming home on oxygen, but he was alive! The nurse who was taking us out to the car (they are required to accompany all patients to their car when they are discharged) was telling me about her brother, who had asthma. He was having an asthma attack and his wife was driving him to the emergency room for treatment. He stopped breathing in the car. They could not revive him. That really made me pause, because how many times have I taken my kids to the emergency room? (Over 15 times at least) Luckily they have never stopped breathing in the car, but we had a couple of close calls. Did you know that 11 people die every day in the U. S. from an asthma attack? I don't want to be one of those statist...

 Son #2 is sick again and of course it started over the weekend.  Sore throat, stomach problems, headache and a nasty cough. So, I have him check his peak flow number (little tube you blow into and it measures your lung capacity) His normal is around 350, he was down to 270. It's a big drop for most people, but normal for Son #2 when he gets sick.  So, out comes the Xopenex to start breathing treatments with the nebulizer. But then I wonder, is it just a respiratory infection, or is it strep? Asthma Doc doesn't swab for strep, but he knows Son #2 like one of his own kids, we are in there so often and he has been his doctor for 11 years now.  Hhmm. What to do.....  I decided to go to the pediatrician for a quick throat swab. It isn't the pediatrician we normally see, and this doctor didn't seem to read his chart. I made sure I brought up the fact that he has asthma. He seemed a unfazed, the other pediatrician will be very cautious and says "I know what he does...

I live in a dessert, and most houses here used swamp coolers on top of the house (also called evaporative coolers.)  Especially houses that can't afford central air (air conditioning).  There are a few problems with using an swamp cooler on top of the house.    Leaking water line A small water line is run from the house to the roof. And that line can often leak.    I teach people how to make their homes allergy & asthma friendly, and one of the things I teach them is to take a look at the roof if they have a swamp cooler.    You can actually see water running down the roof, and that can damage the roof (including growing black mold.) I have seen swamp coolers damage the ceiling inside homes. One home had a 2 foot wide hole in their ceiling from a leaking roof!    Moldy cooler pads    Many people don't change the pads on the swamp cooler every year. It's out of sight, out of mind. So the water constantly running through the ...

          An alert reader sent me this story (I always wanted to say that, I sound just like Dave Barry! Only he's a funny accomplished writer, and I just share asthma stories.. ) There's a new article on WebMD about asthma and farms. It seems that kids who grow up on farms were 30%-50% less likely to have asthma than kids not raised on farms. The study shows that people who are exposed to to dirt, fungi and animals early in life are supposed to be protected against allergies and asthma. Well, it didn't work for me! I didn't grow up on a farm, but I had an assortment of animals in the suburban house where I was raised.    They include guinea pigs, a pet rat (really!), a couple of ducks, a few frogs, a parakeet, 2 rabbits (separate cages of course!), 4 or 5 cats, and a couple of dogs. Of course I didn't have these all at the same time!    But we always had some animals, and I remember constantly sneezing when I was growing up. As usual, I am t...