My Life as an Asthma Mom

So, everyone with asthma is different and sees things in a different light. My pet peeve? Being called "asthmatic." Why? Because I'm so much more than someone with asthma! That is not my label. I'm also a career woman, mom, and friend with wrinkles and streaks of grey hair. And yet none of that defines me either.  My 3 kids also have asthma, but it isn't their label either. Nor is being college students, having allergies, blue or green eyes, and straight or curly hair. None of that defines who they are. With medical conditions (or even disabilities), the shift for the last 20 years has been to use People First Language.   " People First Language is an objec tive and respectful way to speak about people with disabilities by emphasizing the person first, rather than the disability. It acknowledges what a person has , and recognizes that a person is not the disability. In putting the person before the dis ability, People Fi

I'm always reading new research about asthma. I am so glad I can learn from these smart people! I just read an article called "Asthma takes a hard toll on African Americans. Can precision medicine ease the burden?"  In the article, they say that "15.3% of black children have asthma, compared to 7.1% of white children........ African American children are also almost 3 times as likely to die from asthma as white people." A researcher in Boston (Dr. Esteban Burchard) was studying asthma when he said:  “a black teenager died of an asthma attack right outside the hospital entrance. Which is ridiculous. There are 20 hospitals in Boston!” Now in California, Dr. Burchard and a team of 50 researchers published a paper explaining their findings. "A set of genetic mutations found mostly in people of African ancestry may make them less likely to respond to albuterol, the most-prescribed asthma drug in the world." The ar

Last night we were having Sunday Dinner with our college kids. Middle Son decided he wanted to (gasp!) watch a movie with us.  He pulled out Lord of the Rings and mentioned that he hasn't been able to watch it for the last 10 years. He said it brought back bad memories of being in the hospital when he was younger and then being stuck home afterwards to recuperate.  As a teenager, Lord of the Rings was one of his favorite videos. And there are 3 looooong videos, so he could just rest and let his lungs recover while he vegged in front of the TV. Many teenagers might think, "That's Dope! I wanna stay home and watch videos all week." Yeah, well.....you have to be REALLY sick to go to the hospital in the first place. And the recovery isn't much fun either. This is what I saw with my kids after being in the hospital: They are weak.  Their chest hurts from coughing.   They cough so hard they throw up. They have to sleep propped