My Life as an Asthma Mom

 It's spacer time! (Not to be confused with Hammer time.....yes I remember the MC Hammer song from the 90's..... ) And no, I did NOT own a pair of parachute pants! Spacers are one of those things that are SO important to use with an inhaler, but many people don't know about them. In fact, when I help families learn about asthma, the #1 thing that helps them is to learn about spacers. I have had so many people tell me that they seem to feel better just by adding a spacer to their inhaler. What is a spacer? As you can see from the picture above, it's a tube like device that attaches to your inhaler. Some are also called "holding chambers" because they "hold" the medicine with a one way valve until you inhale it.  So, why use one? Well, I know this is hard to read, but this slide is from a training I attended. It was from a respiratory therapist showing how fast the spray comes out of an inhaler. He showed that it came o...

Since I have SO much free time (wait......I am laughing so hard I need to catch my breath........)  As I was saying, with all my free time, I decided to take the Certified Asthma Educator Exam. Studying for it is like being back in college! I thought I would do a little "light reading" on a recent flight. I have my trusty pen to underline important parts of the book. I was hoping I could have a little peace and quiet and be able to read on the flight. I just happened to be reading a section that said,  "Why in people with asthma do the bronchial tubes react to asthmatic triggers in the way that they do, when the very same stimuli have no effect on the airways of someone without asthma?" "That's for sure!" I said to my husband. He looked over at me wondering what I was talking about, and I showed him that paragraph in the book.    I had noticed earlier that the woman sitting in the row in front of me had a REALLY stinky swee...

 (http://ginasthma.org/wad/) Do you have asthma? If so, you are not alone! There are over 334 million people world wide who have asthma!  I have asthma, as do all three of my children (well.....both of my sons are adults and my daughter is a teenager, so I guess they don't fit the "children" category anymore!)   Asthma is different for everyone. In our family, it led to a career change for me. My first Bachelor's Degree was in Interior Design (I still get excited when I walk into a furniture store.....) but I went back to school to get another bachelor's degree so I can help other families learn more about asthma. I wish I would have had someone to help us when my kids were diagnosed 16 years ago. I know that we made a LOT of mistakes!   For some people, asthma is not that bad and they may only use their inhaler once a year. For others, they have a tough time!  My kids were hospitalized 12 times and my son almost died twice. I HATE asth...