My Life as an Asthma Mom

Do your eyes glaze over when someone talks about asthma research?  I usually ignore ads or emails, but I was recruited to be part of research project because they wanted my input as an Asthma Mom.  I was able to help guide the researchers in developing an app to track asthma symptoms. I suggested they include ALL kids under 18  (they wanted to stop at 12 year olds.) (Y'all know how teenagers never tell you anything. They in their room, brooding......) This app would notify the parents and the doctor if their son or daughter dropped into their red zone. They also wanted track missed school and work days. I suggested they track part of a missed school or work day (what if they are late because they were doing a breathing treatment before school, or they had to leave early for allergy shots? They might not miss a full day of school. So, my part of the research was just giving ideas.  But some researchers need people to try out new asthma me...

I always have the morning talk shows playing on TV as I get ready for work each day. I happen to glance up while they were doing their "outside segment" - where everyone stands around the barricades holding signs (hoping they get their 2 seconds on TV!) One young girl was holding a birthday sign. The co-host saw her sign and asked her how old she was. She proudly said, "I'm 7!" Immediately, I thought of my daughter's 7th birthday. Was she on a fun sightseeing trip to New York? Noooooooo! She was in the hospital (again) thanks to prolonged poor air quality, asthma and pneumonia. Did you know that air pollution can cause pneumonia ?   Everything hits harder when you have asthma. People without asthma may be able to bounce back when air quality is unhealthy, but many of us with asthma can't.  We live near the mountains and have some of the best skiing on earth. But, when we don't get snow storms often enough, the valley fills wit...

It's been exactly 20 years since my life was changed forever. Son #2 was diagnosed with asthma at age 5 and admitted to the hospital. What a scary time for us!  That was the first of 12 hospitalizations for Son #2 and Daughter Kitty. (And a healthy amount of After Hours visits,  Emergency Department visits and many sleepless nights.) Son #1 was also diagnosed with asthma, as was I! I had no idea that I had asthma all my life - it all made sense now! How I wish I knew more back then. I wish I would have known: Follow my Mother's Intuition (taking my kids to the ER even after the doctor said "it's just a virus" - I just knew something was really wrong. Hello pneumonia!) Emergency Rooms - when to take my child (read more)  Different types of asthma inhalers (which one to I take every day and which one do I take when I have an asthma attack?) Your home - how things in our home can affect our asthma Different types of asthma (who ...