My Life as an Asthma Mom

                       Does asthma get a summer break? Well, I would LOVE a break from asthma. But that doesn't mean that I can just stop taking my medicine. I may FEEL fine, but I can still have swelling in my lungs if I don't take my maintenance/controller medicine every day. There's an article from the AAAAI website (American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology), called "Summer Break" doesn't apply to asthma medications.   In the article, they say that people have a laid back attitude in summer, and that leads many of them to stop taking their medicine. However, they say that can be a BIG mistake. And a dangerous one. Studies have shown that those people who stop taking their medicine (or cut back on it) in the summer can have BIG problems in the fall. In fact, they are more likely to end up in the emergency room or admitted to the hospital due to an asthma flare up. They see a spike in emergency room ...

I know some people wonder if asthma medicine will stunt their child's growth. Sometimes people worry about side effects when they hear the word "steroid." Inhaled corticosteroids are used daily for asthma to control inflammation in the lungs. AAAAI (American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology) says they are NOT the same steroids that body builders use! This is a list of some of the most commonly used inhaled corticosteroids from AAAAI : Flovent diskus or inhaler Pulmicort flexhaler  Asmanex Alvesco  Aerobid Qvar  If your child is taking any of these, relax. An article from Webmd says the estimated height that can be lost by someone from using inhaled corticosteroids is 1/2". That's it. And that doesn't mean it will happen to every child. My Son #2 has severe asthma and has been hospitalized 8 times and almost died twice. At age 18, he is almost 6 foot tall now. At age 22, Son #1 has mild asthma, has never been hospitalized, ...

I volunteer with my local American Lung Association since they are always looking for people to help them. I was trained to teach the Open Airways For Schools course and taught a session at daughter Kitty's elementary school.  What is Open Airways? Here's a quote from American Lung Association's website: The American Lung Association's Open Airways For Schools program educates and empowers children through a fun and interactive approach to asthma self-management.  It teaches children with asthma ages 8-11 how to detect the warning signs of asthma, avoid their triggers and make decisions about their health. The session I taught was last year, but one of the students remembered me when he saw me at a county fair. He said, "Do you remember me from the Open Airways class?" Yes, I did! He said that he didn't have an inhaler when the Open Airways course started, but talked to his mom about getting one so he could use it at school if he had an asthma...

My last blog post was about Son #2 having an allergic reaction to tree nuts during a family party on Sunday. It seems they are everywhere, no matter how carefully we check food. His allergic reaction could have been worse. But wait! There's more!!! That same night that Son #2 had an allergic reaction, we went to a friend's house for a BBQ. We had our burgers on the grill when I saw someone walk by with salmon to add to the grill. I thought, "I am not taking any chances!" I am allergic to seafood, and I wasn't about to let someone put salmon on the grill with my burger. I told my son to go get our burgers off the grill-QUICK!!! The hostess looked at me a little strangely, and I told her that I was allergic to seafood. I thought she knew about that burgers can't be cooked in the same spot on the grill that seafood was, but she didn't. She  quickly went out and took care of the grill situation, and our burgers were not cross-contaminated. Sometimes I...

    Well, as careful as we are to try to always check food for tree nuts, Son #2 ate a cookie with tree nuts in it. We had a family BBQ yesterday, and someone brought chocolate chip cookies. They looked fine on the plate, they looked like regular cookies. At some point, Son #2 he ate one. He asked Hubby if he could take an antihistamine, but didn't say why. Later on, I asked him what was wrong and he said he didn't feel very good. His little sister, Kitty, said "The chocolate chip cookies had nuts in them!!" I found out later that the person that made the cookies chopped the nuts up really fine-so you couldn't really see them in the cookies. What Son #2 DIDN'T tell me was that his throat was itching and then his face started itching. RED FLAG!!!!!! He was having an allergic reaction, that's why he took an antihistamine. I told him if he EVER start to feel that way again-suspect tree nuts. Because that is the only reason he would have a reaction like ...

To say that our whole family is miserable now is an under statement. Hubby and I and all three teenagers have allergies year round, but spring is by far the worst. We are allergic to anything that is alive (trees, flowers, bushes, grass, cats, dogs, etc.) But this time of year is always hard. We have found a few things that help us: Start on allergy medicine BEFORE the season gets bad. If you wait until you are miserable to try to get it under control, it's going to be a lot harder than trying to prevent it in the first place. Kind of like when the hospital tells you to take medicine before the pain gets really bad  Keep the windows rolled up while driving your car and use air conditioning instead  Sleep with the windows closed and use air conditioning in the house BEFORE you go to bed, shower so you remove the pollen from your hair and skin. Otherwise you will roll around in pollen all night and wake up sneezing and have puffy eyes Talk to an allergy doctor ab...

Yep, perfume again. I had another asthma attack from someone's perfume. This is only the 2nd time it's ever happened to me. The first time was last year, but the weird thing is that it's never bothered me before then. I was at Kitty's dance recital last night, and could smell a strong perfume on someone. I glanced around me, but it was hard to tell where it was coming from. I was packed into a seat in the auditorium, so I decided not to get up and move. I was sure I would be okay. But the longer I sat, the worse I felt. I could feel a sneeze coming and could feel my chest getting tighter. Last time I had an asthma attack from perfume, the same thing happened. First I was annoyed by the strong sweet smelling perfume. Could they possibly have sprayed more on their body?! Then I started sneezing, and then I started coughing. This time, I could feel it starting and took my inhaler right away. The last time it happened, I was in a movie theater and started a ba...