My Life as an Asthma Mom

I love researchers! Unlike me, these people are REALLY smart! There are lots of Smart People, like my teenage daughter, Kitty - who drops her high school physics class because it's too easy. (Yeah, well I can't even spell physics - I had to use spell check for this blog entry.......)   But these researchers are finding out new things all the time about asthma. The photo above shows a doctor looking at lungs, but the researchers are looking a lot deeper - at the cells that line the lungs (epithelial cells) The newest research out shows that the cells that line the lungs in people with asthma are not like other people's lung cells. In "normal people's" lung cells, their cells just sit there in the lungs, like cars in a traffic jam.  But people who have asthma have lungs cells that can be explained by  a study from Harvard Public Health  “scramble around like there’s a fire drill going on” I always tell people that asthma is like a ...

I've been watching all of the stories on the news about the fires in California and Oregon. It's so hard to see the home owners on the news after their houses have burned. It shows families going back to what was their house, only to find ashes there now. We live two states away, and our skies are filled with smoke from the fires. Smoke and asthma are NOT a good mix. In fact, when I was watching the stories on the news, my first thought was "How can those people be there around all that smoke!?" I can't see how any of the reporters, government officials, home owners and fire fighters can stand it. It made me wonder if any of them have asthma? The smoke is bad enough where I live, how can they stand being in the same area where the fire is burning? I have been having problems with my asthma and my throat is burning and my eyes are running.   I work in an office, so the air here is filtered. I also have air cleaners and a filter system on my ...

Have you ever wondered if there was a "safer" place to live if you have asthma?  When my kids were younger and frequently in the hospital, I wondered the same thing. Out of desperation, I asked Asthma Doc, "Is there a better place to live for asthma?" He sort of chuckled and then said, "There are going to be asthma triggers wherever you go - cats, dogs, dust, plants, grass, etc. You could move to a new area that has new plants that you aren't used to - then that would cause more allergy and asthma problems." Rats. I was hoping he would say that medically, the best place for us to live was Hawaii. A girl can try, can't she?!   Allergy and Asthma Foundation of America (AAFA) have released their list of the top 100 worst place to live if you have asthma. You can see the Top 10 on WebMd's site  You can visit AAFA's website to see all 100 cities.This is how they decide which cities are the worst: "2015 Rank - R...

      I can't believe summer is coming to and end! We still have a few weeks until daughter Kitty starts school, but we are already planning ahead for her asthma. School Nurse sent an Asthma Action Plan this summer. What is an Asthma Action Plan? The Centers for Disease Control,  CDC  explains it this way: What is an asthma action plan? The action plan is based on zones of asthma care defined by your peak expiratory flow (PEF) rate and symptoms. A PEF is a way to measure how much air you can blow out of your lungs in one second. Measuring your own PEF every day will help you track how well you are doing.    Green means go   You are in the green zone of the asthma action plan if your peak expiratory flow rate is 80% to 100% of your personal best measurement. You want to be in the green zone every day. You should have...