My Life as an Asthma Mom

I just received an email from School Nurse. It's that time of year again - already!! Time to fill out the new Asthma Action Plan for daughter Kitty for the upcoming school year. I take it to Asthma Doc to fill it out, then I sign it, then I return it to the school nurse. Yes, the school nurses work during the summer.... There are MANY Asthma Action Plans out there, most school nurses have a form that they like to use. This one above is from the Utah Asthma Program . Did you know that students can carry their asthma inhaler with them - AT ALL TIMES? And in every state in the country?! Allergy & Asthma Network Mothers of Asthmatics (AANMA) has an area on their website that talks about Medications at School. Their website says: "In 2010, we celebrated that all 50 states protect students' rights to carry and self-administer asthma medications." Do we have these laws in every state? In 2010 we celebrated that all 50 states ...

Here's a screen shot from http://pbskids.org/arthur/health/asthma/ I love the PBS show Arthur!! My kids grew up watching it. I love that Arthur, D.W., Buster, Francine, Muffy, The Brain, Binky and all of the other characters would go through many of the things my kids had to go through.  We watched episodes about chicken pox, being the last kid in your class to loose a tooth, and one of our favorite episodes - where Buster is diagnosed with asthma. PBS has an Arthur Family Health website with information about asthma, peanut allergy, nutrition, resilience and fitness. The asthma section has a lot of great information, including the original PBS episode where Buster is diagnosed with asthma. It's called "Buster's Breathless".     My kids loved the video, because they could relate. In the episode, Francine worries that asthma is contagious. Arthur is over-protective and has to wipe off Buster's books (Buster had an asthma attack while he a...

  When my allergies get REALLY bad, they can trigger an asthma attack. The same thing happens to Daughter Kitty. Her allergies are pretty severe - she takes allergy medicine EVERY DAY OF HER LIFE, and she is on year 6 of allergy shots.   Most people just do allergy shots for 3-5 years.....but not our family!!  Last month, Kitty started a strange little cough that lasted for a week or two. I took her to Asthma Doc, who changed her allergy and asthma medicine. Another two weeks passed, and she was STILL coughing-only it was getting worse.    She was coughing so hard, she almost threw up. And she also pulled a muscle in her side while she was coughing - poor thing. She hasn't had an asthma attack for a LONG time, so she didn't realize what was happening. Let me tell you - I put the nebulizer together REALLY fast that day!  Sometimes it's easier for us to use the nebulizer when we have an asthma attack, rather than using our inhalers....

Sheesh! Just when you think you have everything figured out when it comes to asthma..... I've had allergies and asthma all my life - and I passed my defect on to my kids. All of my teenagers have bad allergies (they have all had to have immunotherapy for 5 years) .  Son #1 has exercise-induced asthma. Son #2 has severe asthma and has been hospitalized 8 times (and almost died twice...) Daughter Kitty has asthma and has been hospitalized 4 times (usually due to pneumonia.) I have spent most of my time worrying about Son #2. Now it seems like Son #2 and Kitty are changing places. I wondered, "what is going on??!!" He is getting better, but her asthma is steadily getting worse? Then I remembered about asthma rates. CDC (The Centers for Disease Control) tracks the percentage of people who have asthma and separate it out by sex, race, age, etc. Their Asthma Facts report has a couple of interesting graphs on page 4.  The top chart shows asthma rates...

    A colleague and I were just talking about allergies, hers are really bad right now. Poor woman, I know how she feels! :( It's hard to find an allergy medicine that works and doesn't make you tired. Zyrtec , Allergra and Claritin are supposed to be less drowsy medicines. We were also talking about how some people eat honey to help their allergies. I thought it was one of those myths about allergies, so I looked it up. I found an article on Allergy BeGone titled "Does Eating Local Honey Ease Allergy Symptoms?" It sounds like it would work similar to allergy shots. With allergy shots (immunotherapy) your bottle of serum has tiny amounts of what you are allergic to (trees, flowers, bushes, animals, etc). By getting weekly allergy shots, your body slowly builds up an immunity to them. (In theory that's how it's supposed to work.....it doesn't seem to be working for Daughter Kitty-she's on YEAR 6 of allergy shots. You read that right...

Well, school is out!!!  Is anyone sending their kid(s) to asthma camp? Some of you may be wondering, "what is asthma camp?!" The Consortium of Children's Asthma Camps are special camps located nationwide that helps kids with asthma learn how to manage their asthma, while being active and experiencing the  normal camp activities - hiking, canoeing, fishing, ropes courses, swimming, etc. What makes asthma camp different is that each camp has a doctor, nurses and respiratory therapists on hand 24 hours a day! These staffers are trained to know how to handle allergies and asthma. What a relief! You can relax, knowing that if your child has a flare up during camp, medically trained personnel will be on hand to treat them.  Here's a video from a camp in Minnesota, Camp Superkids. Be sure to watch the very end of this video, it shows 4 different health plans that PAY for the kids to attend asthma camp! Each American Lung Association chapter also ha...

Medquip Pediatric Nebulizer with pacifier attachment (http://www.medquip.com/search.asp?keyword=pediatric+pacifier+attachment&search.x=0&search.y=0) I found this in a catalog while I was at a conference. It's a pediatric nebulizer that comes with a pacifier adapter. Who knew they made those?! Now when my kids were little...... (that makes me sound REALLY old!!) all we had were oxygen masks that were shaped like a dinosaur or a fish. This is what the company says about their pediatric nebulizers:  " A Pediatric Pacifier attachment is available to ensure that the youngest of children receive proper successful treatments." Here's what they look like, I found the photo on shopping.com What a genius idea! Of course, you have to have a baby or toddler that will take a pacifier.  If this would work for you, ask your doctor about the pacifier adapter, and see if insurance will pay for it. I remember how hard it was to get our toddler...

I hate allergies. Hubby and I and all three teenagers have allergies. We have them year round-not just in the spring when things are blooming. *Sigh*  We buy tissues in bulk. I really like the kind that has lotion in the tissues, because that way I don't look like Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer when I'm blowing or wiping my nose ALL DAY LONG!  We can usually cope okay, but how do you know if you may need help dealing with allergies? Webmd has a slideshow called "10 Signs Your Allergies Are Out of Control." There are a lot of ways allergies can make you miserable besides a runny nose and sneezing. It can affect all areas of your life.  Allergies can keep you up at night because you may have a stuffy nose or are coughing or wheezing (think of what it's like to try to sleep when you have a cold-only this goes on for weeks and weeks with allergies!) It might be hard to concentrate because antihistamines can make you tired or your nose is runni...