My Life as an Asthma Mom

I was talking to a woman at the gym this morning who has been out sick for a while with pneumonia. I told her to join the club!! She asked how long it took me to feel better, I said it always takes longer when you have asthma. I'm still weak and not back to myself after 3 weeks. We started chit chatting and she said the doctor gave her an inhaler, but she doesn't want to use it because she might get thrush. She said the doctor told her to rinse her mouth out after she uses it. I told her not to worry, I've only had thrush once or twice from my inhaler, and I've had asthma all my life. She said she can "feel" that all of the swelling is gone in her lungs. I told her that you CAN'T feel inflammation in your lungs. Here is a direct quote from Webmd.  "Even when you feel well, your asthma hasn't gone away. Even if you can't feel it, your airways might still be inflamed." Asthma Doc always says that if you use a rescue/emergency inh...

 It's that time of year again...sugar overload!  I mean Halloween. If you have a child with food allergies (or have some yourself) you need to check all the Halloween candy carefully. Snack size candy bars can be different from full sized candy bars. Son #2 is allergic to tree nuts, so we have to be careful when we pick out candy. If you have someone that is allergic to peanuts , good luck finding chocolate candy without it! The Snickers, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and even the Butterfinger candy bars in my cauldron all have peanuts.  Luckily, we're NOT allergic to peanuts, so we can eat all of these candy bars.  Mmmmm. We worry about cross contamination, so if I had a child that was allergic to peanuts, I wouldn't let him eat the Twix candy bars that are also in the cauldron. If you have candy bars that have peanuts mixed in with candy bars that don't, that can be enough cross contamination for some people to cause anaphylaxis.  We read labels to se...

ep, that was my breakfast this morning.  An antibiotic pill first, then a steroid. MMMM.  Then I did a breathing treatment in the nebulizer with Albuterol. Once my lungs were opened up a little, I could use my Advair inhaler. Breakfast of Champions, yum! I can't believe I'm sick again. Hubby got sick the last day of our vacation, and I was careful to wash my hands and spray everything with Lysol. I thought I dodged a bullet, but a week later it was my turn to be sick. When I woke up with a scratchy throat, I thought "uh oh-not again!"  Wasn't I sick with this last month? It's been miserable. First the low grade fever started, then I had sneezing fits that could be heard by the neighbors. I followed that up with a nasty cough. I woke up on Saturday and realized I was in trouble.  I was coughing up colored phlegm, a sure sign of infection. And I was so breathless that I couldn't speak above a whisper. I called Asthma Doc's after hours line, bu...

   Retractions are one of those severe symptoms of an asthma attack. It's when you are having such a hard time breathing, that you are using other muscles to help, and the skin sucks in around your collar bone and along your ribs. You can see the collar bone sticking out each time you try to take a breathe and you can see the skin tighten over the rib cage. It's a  BAD sign and you need to get to the hospital- FAST! A call to 911 would be a good idea. If you want to see a photo of what it looks like, click here. The Webmd website has a slide show called "Signs of  a Pending Asthma Attack." It has 10 very helpful photos and tips about asthma. I have actually seen retractions on Son #2 once, it was one of the many times he ended up in the hospital-only that time he was listed in ICU. (Intensive Care Unit) It was something I never want to see again. He was sick and I had just given him a breathing treatment with the nebulizer and I was rinsing out the caniste...

Something was bothering me one morning on vacation in Europe. I don't know what it was-sometimes that's how it is with asthma.    You can't figure out what triggered an asthma attack. I decided I had better use my inhaler, and I felt much better afterwards. We were visiting a beautiful old cathedral in Paris, and we had to wait some time to climb to the towers on the top and over look the city. I didn't think much of it until I started climbing the 350 stairs to the top. (And it was a narrow spiral staircase!)    My lungs felt like they were on fire. And my heart was beating quite fast. I realized that was thanks to using my inhaler AND climbing a steep flight of stairs. It was harder to climb the tower than I thought it would be. Luckily there was an older woman in front of me that had to stop to catch her breath. She apologized, and waved me on.    I told her I wasn't going any faster than she was and I would wait. It gave me a moment to try to be...

Time for a vacation, so I won't be blogging while I'm gone. I'm one of the few people in American who doesn't have a smart phone, so I couldn't blog even if I wanted to. Have fun reading through all the old posts, you can use the search bar to look up any information you would like. I hope my asthma behaves itself while I'm on vacation.....