My Life as an Asthma Mom

I know it sounds weird to be prepping for a long illness, but I know what is coming up this week. This morning, I woke up with my throat feeling funny and my lungs feel a little off. Not enough that I need my inhaler or nebulizer, but just enough to let me know that something isn't right. People with asthma get a lot sicker than people without asthma (when it comes to colds and the flu.)  In fact, it's not uncommon for a simple cold to morph into bronchitis or pneumonia.     If I start with a cold, I know my cold will turn into bronchitis (as it did 4 times last year.) So, I am getting ready. I am stocking up on: Tissues with lotion Throat lozenges Cough drops Orange juice Chicken Noodle Soup I also make sure my Albuterol inhaler has plenty of puffs in it. And I check my boxes of Albuterol vials for my nebulizer to make sure I have enough. Since I moved, I also need to find: The closest Urgent Care (and the hours...

This can be a tough time of year - holiday work parties, making treats for the neighbors, trying to take a family photo, being stuck in an airport, or in a long line of traffic trying to leave the city. Did you know strong emotions can trigger an asthma flare up ? What are strong emotions anyway? Anger, crying, laughter, yelling, fear, etc. And there can be plenty of those emotions this time of year!   So, what do you do? There's always going to be anger, especially if you commute to work (why do people insist on not using their blinker to change lanes? And they can't wait to merge but instead cut off other drivers?) I don't get it! Crying can be common this time of year. It's hard to keep up with holiday expectations and you may be forced to spend time with family members who you didn't get along with as a kid, and you still don't. Laughter - okay, there is nothing funner for me than watching a good movie. Or listening to T...

During this holiday season, we have been dealing with the death of a beloved family member. For those of you who have lost a loved one, you know how hard it is to plan a funeral.  Luckily, this family member had already planned their funeral years ago. But there were still plenty of last minute details to attend to since have changed since she planned her funeral.  During one of our many meetings with the Funeral Director, I was curious about what he sees in his line of work. The death in our family was expected, yet still came quicker than we thought. I have had other deaths in my family where I got "The Phone Call" that no one ever wants to get. (Letting me know that a family member had died suddenly.) Since my world revolves around allergies and asthma, I was curious if The Funeral Director had to deal with any deaths from asthma. His reply was a quick, "Oh yes, many over the years."  Did you know that people can die from asthma? Most p...

This is one of those things you never want to happen - but it does.  We had this scary and sad experience 12 times with our kids. I really hate pneumonia and smoke from forest fires.....those are my kid's enemies. So, you have a child in the hospital for asthma, now what? Well, you know your child better than anyone else. What would comfort them? For us, we found a few things that helped and we packed them with every hospitalization. Favorite blankie   My kids would usually get a blanket from Project Linus, but it's not the same thing as having your favorite blankie at the hospital. The nurses would always remind us that when they come in to change the sheets on the kid's hospital bed, to make sure they didn't accidentally take blankie. Because once it went to the hospital laundry, we probably wouldn't get it back.  Favorite stuffed animal  Same thing here. They would get a stuffed animal that was donated to the hospita...

Recently, one of my college aged sons was looking at a big clock on the wall in our living room. He said, "You know, I can see the number on the clock but not the letters." I could see him squinting, but he still couldn't see them. I was a little surprised and wondered how long he was having trouble seeing? I knew he would need a pair of glasses, so I told him to go to the eye doctor. Sure enough, he came back home with a prescription for glasses. Once he had his glasses, he was walking around the house looking at things. I could tell that he was noticing things that he wasn't able to see before. I told him I remembered what it was like when I got glasses. I didn't realize what I missing! I THOUGHT I could see okay, but once I got glasses, I realized I had been missing a lot! That reminded me of families that get inhalers for the first time. They have NO idea that they aren't breathing as well as they could be. Most people are really ...