My Life as an Asthma Mom

Tissues are my best friend right now. We have LOTS of boxes of tissues and travel sized tissue packs around the house, in the car, in the teenager's back packs and in my purse. Spring is here! And with it comes hay fever. Some people may say "what's the big deal?" The problem is that having allergies is like having a cold-FOR MONTHS AT A TIME! A cold is here and gone in a week. With allergies, it can be MONTHS later and we are STILL sneezing, having runny noses, itchy throats and rubbing our eyes until they are red. Day after day, after day, after day. There are things that can help. There are a lot of options when dealing with allergies, the Mayo Clinic has a whole list on their website. You can use nasal sprays, pills, liquids, eye drops, inhalers, skin cream and allergy shots. Our family has tried them all. Hubby and I and all three teenagers have allergies. Year round. And we have all used different things to treat our allergies. Your doctor can actual...

                      I had Spring Fever last week. I wore sundresses (with a cardigan sweater of course.) And I was sporting sandals. Never mind that my toes were numb by the time I got to work. I was excited for Spring! Then it snowed. In fact, we were on the highway and there was just enough snow to make it slippery. We passed 4 accidents in an hour. I couldn't wear sandals because of the snow, and I had to switch back to my winter coat, hat and gloves. For some parts of the country, this is typical weather. It warms up, then rains or snows. Then warms up, then rains or snows. Annoying, yes. But it can also cause problems with asthma. For some people, changes in the weather can cause problems. They can have problems with temperatures changing (warm to cold or cold to warm) or with humidity levels changing (dry to misty weather or misty to dry weather.) It's good to know about different triggers (or causes) of asthma attac...

There was a student at a school in Eastern Pennsylvania who was rushed to the hospital with a life-threatening allergic reaction to Axe Body spray. The CBS news article   said that the student had his throat close up three different times in nine days after smelling the spray. The school nurse had to inject the student with an Epi Pen the last time before he was transported to the hospital to be treated. That student was lucky that the school nurse was there. Our school nurse covers between 5-8 schools. The chances that she would be there if my son had anaphylaxis is zero. My son is allergic to tree nuts. Not to be confused with peanuts. A peanut is actually from the legume family. My son is allergic to nuts that come from trees (walnuts, almonds, cashews, etc.) I wonder if the student was carrying an Epi Pen or if the school had a "stock" Epi Pen on hand for emergencies. Our county health department works with our three local school districts to make sure every s...

    I just read an article called "Non Respiratory Signs of Worsening Asthma" by the American Academy of Allergy Asthma & Immunology.  It sounds like a mouthful, but the idea of the article is simple. They asked parents in the research study to watch for OTHER signs of asthma getting worse in their child. Most of us focus on wheezing and coughing-the usual "cold like" symptoms. But they asked parents to watch for changes in the way their child is acting or looks. They found that in the days before an uncontrolled asthma flare up, there were some things that parents noticed about their children. The "non respiratory symptoms" are: tension anxiety sleeping problems tiredness paleness The one upper respiratory symptom that seemed to increase dramatically was an itchy throat. (That's one things I always have before an asthma attack is a "twitchy" throat.) The study showed that the non respiratory symptoms were actually more ...

   I know I have talked about this before, but did you know that there are companies that will help pay for your medicine? I was talking to a neighbor about it last night. If you go to the website for Needymeds.org , you can find help. When I did a Google search, here's what it said about Needymeds:  "NeedyMeds is the best source of information on patient assistance programs. All our information is free and updated regularly." Needymeds doesn't sell medicine, it helps you find a company that will help you pay for your medicine. The website is free and easy to use. Just go to the website and you will see a green stripe across the front page of the website. You can choose from: Brand Name Drugs Generic Name Drugs Coupons Rebates & More Free Clinics Clinical Trials My neighbor takes name brand drugs, so we clicked on " Brand Name Drugs. " That takes you to a page with the alphabetical letters in blue print. Click on the letter of the alp...

We've been on several vacations with our three teenagers (all of whom have asthma) and you can never be too prepared. Our nebulizer has been to Disneyland and the Grand Canyon, among other places! We pack everything, peak flow meters, nebulizer, Epi pens and all of our maintenance medication. The problem with traveling is that you never know what trigger you may come across. Or, there may be something new that bothers you. I had an asthma attack in Disneyland, and to this day have no idea what caused it. There can be a lot of triggers for asthma-plants, animals, changes in weather, smoking, mold, etc. You need to be prepare to treat allergies and asthma and make sure you have all your medication and equipment with you. I always check to see where the closest hospital or Urgent Care is located (you never know if you might need it!) I also a special out-of-state insurance card. It's helpful to check with your insurance company to see what they cover for out of state eme...

I just noticed a counter on my inhaler the other day, I knew they were putting counters on rescue inhalers, but didn't realize they were using them on maintenance inhalers.  Some people get a little confused by the different types of inhalers. I take one EVERY DAY, whether I feel symptoms or not. You can't "feel" swelling in your lungs, but that's what can happen if you don't take an anti-inflammatory inhaler every day to control the swelling.  When those of us with asthma get a simple cold (on top of the swelling that is already in the lungs), it can lead to trouble.  My kids and I all have allergies and asthma, which means that if we're not careful, our lungs can swell because they are constantly being annoyed by the allergens we are breathing in.  It also means that we are a lot more likely to get pneumonia or bronchitis if we have a cold. Pneumonia has caused 12 hospitalizations for Son #2 and daughter Kitty.  A simple cold isn't so simple when ...

(photo from the WebMD website http://www.webmd.com/allergy-app) WebMD has a free new app out for iphones, it will help if you have allergies. And spring is just around the corner, so this app is just in time! In fact, we saw the allergy medicine TV commercial again where the actor has wads of tissues stuck in his pockets and the announcer says, "Do you store tissues like a squirrel stores nuts?!" Oh yeah, that's my family! Hubby and I and all three kids have year round allergies. And the kids and I all have asthma. Here is a link to the video from WebMd's website .  It says the free iphone app will help with: Personalized allergy and forecast alerts Customized for you and your family Notifications when your allergy triggers are high Doctor approved tips and articles Specific to you and your family's allergens This would be really helpful for my daughter, Kitty. She started out yesterday morning sneezing, and she didn't stop until she go...

                                          I was reading an article called "Flipping the Lid On Food Allergies " in Allergy & Asthma Today magazine. It was written by Dr. Sakina Bajowala. She is a board-certified in general pediatrics and adult and pediatric allergy and immunology. She has two boys with allergies. She says when she wrote the article, she worried it may be controversial, but she thinks many parents may over-react to peanut allergies. Some parents think that being in the same room, airplane or birthday party where they are serving peanuts could cause their child to die. She says that peanut protein found in peanut butter is undetectable in the air . She talks about a study at Mount Sinai School of Medicine where they had kids that were highly allergic to peanut butter sn...

Call it fate, call it what you want. A police officer near Atlanta, George happened to be in the right place at the right time to save the life of someone who was having an asthma attack. Linda Tyler was rushing her 42 year old son, Keith Haynes, to the hospital when he "siezed up, went limp and stopped breathing" according to a video on The Today Show Linda was near a BP gas station, and saw a police officer inside. She ran inside and begged the officer to help her son. It was raining, so the police officer and another son carried Keith Haynes inside to perform CPR. You can actually watch the video that was recorded by the gas station's security system. It shows the police officer doing CPR on Haynes. They worked on him until paramedics came and were able to get him breathing again. Dying from asthma is rare, but every day in the U.S 9 people will die from asthma. My second son almost stopped breathing twice as we were rushing him to the hospital. It...

  Some days, this is me.  It can be hard taking care of kids who have a chronic illness. And asthma is one of those-some days are better than others. When I hear one of my kids coughing, and I think "here we go again." And it's not just winter time. My son has been in the hospitalized in July! If you are a parent of a child with a chronic condition (asthma, diabetes, seizure disorder, etc), you need to take care of yourself. You won't be any good to your kids if you are stressed out and worn out. I usually get sick when my kids are in the hospital. Since I also have asthma, usually when they get bronchitis or pneumonia, I get sick too. I remember during one of the 12 hospitalizations for my kids, I was so weak, I could hardly drive back and forth to the hospital. I have learned to take small breaks for myself (not easy when you work full time) but I sneak things in here and there. It's Monday morning, and I started the week with a massage.  It was for ...

(From my Close to Home calendar)  Today was the day I was worried about, the day daughter Kitty had to be re-tested for her allergies. For those of you who have not had the allergy testing done, you can read the previous post (I explain everything there.) Having to be go through that all over again is no fun. When we got there today, Asthma Doc asked if she was ready. I told him it had been a LONG and itchy week and she was ready to get back to taking her antihistamines! He had given her a prescription for prednisone to help with the reactions. But she was still miserable. So, as Shot Nurse was about to start the testing, daughter Kitty was a little nervous. "Last time, you said it wouldn't hurt-and it DID!" She complained. Well, Shot Nurse said it wouldn't hurt. She draws four rows and numbers them on your child's back (I think there were 43 in all today.) That part tickled. But then she pull out the allergy serum plastic vial with a pointy end and scratch...