My Life as an Asthma Mom

My friend sent me an article about a new medicine that is going through drug trials right now. It's for dust mite allergies. If you want a little "light reading" (ha ha) you can read more about it from The Journal of the American Medical Association Remember the Good Ol' Days when your kids had to have allergy shots for 3-5 years?! Now you may be able to skip shots and take a pill instead. YAY!! As the mother of 3, all of whom have allergies and asthma, it was awful to have to take my kids to allergy shots.  Of course, none of my kids were on the same schedule. One wouldn't be doing shots, one would be doing shots once every other week. One would be having shots twice a week. So, for a 10 year period, we would go back and forth to the Asthma Doc's office. It got REALLY old. REALLY fast.  The kids were young, so I would have to drag all 3 kids with me (whether they were getting shots or not.) And would also have to plan around school, soccer, sw...

This is how it looks when we see the doctor.  But did you know that you can "see" your doctor without leaving your home? Wait.....what?  You don't have to drive to their office - you can see and talk to them through a smart phone or ipad! (It's like Facetime - where you see and talk to the other person). There are many private companies and even hospital systems that are getting on board now. I learned about Doctor on Demand while at an asthma conference sponsored by Allergy & Asthma Network last fall. One of the doctors showed us how it works. You can watch a short video that shows how it works on the website for Doctor on Demand.  What a smart idea! Since then, I have seen 2 of our hospitals here advertising the same thing. There are times when I am so sick, I can't drive myself to the doctor (and no one else is home to drive me.) It would have been a nice idea when I had my concussion and I had to drive myself to the doctor! Or when I...

I just listened to a helpful and VERY funny webinar from AAN - Allergy & Asthma Network. If you haven't heard of them, you are missing out on a great resource! AAN is a national organization that helps families with allergies and asthma. They also lobby congress for laws to help us (make sure kids can carry asthma inhalers and epi pens in school at all times, have schools have a "stock" inhaler that can treat anyone in the school with asthma, etc, etc.) Randall Brown, MD, AE-C, of the Center for Managing Chronic Disease, University of Michigan - See more at: http://www.allergyasthmanetwork.org/advances-allergy-asthma-webinar-inhaler-confusion-2/#sthash.19Tevjff.dpuf Randall Brown, MD, AE-C, of the Center for Managing Chronic Disease, University of Michigan - See more at: http://www.allergyasthmanetwork.org/advances-allergy-asthma-webinar-inhaler-confusion-2/#sthash.19Tevjff.dpufDr Dr. Randall Brown, AE-C, of the center for Managing Chronic Disease...