My Life as an Asthma Mom

 I'm an avid news follower, and saw an article about a new design for a spacer. It seems that four college students developed it for a contest at the University of Utah's Bench to Bedside Medical Device competition.  One of the students has asthma and hated having to use his spacer when he was growing up. Spacers are big and bulky, and you have to be coordinated to be able to breath in and depress the inhaler at the right time.  Some people just aren't coordinated. Kind of like how I can't walk and chew gum at the same time!  For you to get the most medicine from your inhaler, you need a spacer. For those of you new to asthma, a spacer looks like a clear tube and it attaches to an inhaler. When you take a puff of your inhaler, the medicine is sprayed into the tube, and you SLOWLY inhale it out of the tube.  It will whistle if you inhale too quickly.  The propellant comes out over 50 miles per hour, so using a spacer allows you to ge...

  Why is this stuffed bear sticking out of my washing machine? It's about to get washed! Muhahah! Stuffed animals can cause problems with asthma, but most people don't know that. How? Well, Horsey looks cute sticking out of the washer, but he is full of dust. So are the other stuffed animals on my daughter's bed. I only let her have 2 or 3 of her favorite stuffed animals on her bed-and they have to get washed regularly. Have you ever seen a bed that has so many stuffed animals in it that there is no room for the child to sleep? I've also seen a net that hangs in the corner of a child's room, above their bed, where they can put all of their stuffed animals. Can you imagine sleeping under all of that dust? No wonder kids are sneezing and wheezing. Then there are book cases, shelves and window ledges lined with stuffed animals Don't get me wrong, I love stuffed animals (as did my kids when they were little) But how often do you wash your kid's stuffed animal...

              We haven't had that many problems when the kids get their weekly allergy shots. Sometimes they can get have a reaction. Usually they just have a small bump that looks like a mosquito bite. But sometimes, they get large welts. This was just the start of my daughter's reaction last week. The spot on the upper photo actually tripled in size, leaving a hard, hot welt on her arm. It's important to let the doctor's office know if you have a reaction like that. The next week when you get your shots, they will reduce the amount of serum in the injection. Then you will have to slowly build back up again to your normal level. Shot Nurse taught each of my kids to tell her how big the size of their bump was after shots. She asks if it was the size of a penny or quarter (or bigger!) My daughter's welt was half the size of a dollar bill last week. Ask your doctor what he wants you to do if you have a large welt. We usually put Bendadryl cream on the ar...

I picked up a Reader's Digest to read yesterday and found an article about allergies. I thought I had read it all and seen it all, but the first line of the article has me laughing! It said: "When the sounds of birds chirping instantly trigger a runny nose, you know your allergies are bad. " They had a few simple ideas from the article and the show "The Doctors" Avoid going outside during high pollen times-5 am to 10 am. Avoid windy days. Use a HEPA filter in your vacuum, air conditioning and heating system (otherwise, you can just spread around the dust and pollen) Try switching allergy medications if yours makes you drowsy. The article says Zyrtec, Allegra and Claritin may help you feel more alert. They also say to take it at night, so you sleep through some of the drowsy side effects. Try allergy eye drops and nasal sprays instead of a pill. Use a sinus rinse, my doctor recommends a Neti Pot . The article didn't mention an important ide...

  I know that I have already written about this before, but I keep meeting people who have never heard of an Advair inhaler.     Even doctors don't know it is available. Most people only know about the Advair discus. There are some people who don't like the "taste" of Advair. (Or should I say they don't like the powder in the Advair disc. )The Advair disc has two medicines in it to help with your asthma symptoms. It MUST be taken every day. If you wait until you are sick to start on a daily controller medication, it will be too late. That's the mistake we made when we were first learning about asthma, and my kids ended up hospitalized frequently until we figured out how to treat their asthma. For those of you who hate the powder, there's another option-an Advair inhaler. It's the same medicine, but in an inhaler version. Many people are used to their rescue inhalers, so to have their maintenance medication also be in an inhaler makes it easier for th...