My Life as an Asthma Mom

It's holiday party time - and as someone that is allergic to seafood - I am constantly checking my food at holiday parties. Shrimp in BBQ baked beans???? Yep.....I have had that happen!  Son #2 is allergic to tree nuts, which are in a LOT of bakery products and ice creams. So he has an even harder time avoiding his allergen than I do.  Last month, I attended a national allergy and asthma conference where one of the doctors showed a VERY funny video about food allergies. How can that be funny? Well.....if you have ever had a time when a doctor thought you had NO idea what you were talking about (because HE'S the doctor, not you......) you may get a chuckle out of watching the video.  It was create by Dr. Julie Brown and it shows a mom trying to tell the ER doctor that her son is having anaphylaxis - but the doc isn't listening. Does that sound familiar?  I have had pretty good luck over the years with doctors saying that "they listen to...

Well, it’s that’s time of year again. My friends on Facebook are posting lovely pictures of their family at the Christmas tree lots, picking out the perfect tree. It’s post card perfect. Well, we are……heading to our store room to haul out our carefully packaged Christmas tree. Sigh. No fresh smelling pine trees, no pesky needles to sweep up. Just an artificial Christmas tree. Hubby and I and all 3 kids have allergies – to everything. Trees, grass, flowers, bushes, cats, dogs, horses – basically anything that is alive. And that includes Christmas trees. It’s not that we haven’t tried to treat our allergies. Not only do we all take allergy medicine (or allergy nose spray) every day, but the kids have all had 5 year’s worth of allergy shots. Allergy shots are supposed to desensitize your body and make your allergies better...but just our luck - they didn't work well on the kids.  Their allergies aren’t as bad as they used to be, but they still sne...