My Life as an Asthma Mom

I was just chatting with a friend who said that the weirdest thing just happened. She was eating cherries and her lips started to tingle. She's worried that she is allergic to cherries now. I told her that it could be Oral Allergy Syndrome. She said, " what allergy what?" Oral Allergy Syndrome (also known as Pollen Food Allergy Syndrome) is when you are not only allergic to pollen from trees, weeds and grass - but also fruits and veggies that have a similar pollen. Still confused?   American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology explains how it works: Common pollen/fruit associations: Allergic to birch pollen? You could be allergic to: apple, almond, carrot, celery, cherry, hazelnut, kiwi, peach, pear, plum Allergic to Grass pollen?  You could be allergic to: celery, melons, oranges, peaches, tomato Allergic to ragweed?  You could be allergic to:  banana, cucumber, melons, sunflower seeds, zucchini Allergy & Asthma Network lists other things you can be...

Yeah, me too. Anyone else have a "mind blown" experience on social media? From someone who you THOUGHT you knew? I'm a little shocked by some of the nasty things that have been in my social media feed. I've had to un-follow family members and friends. And do you know what? That's okay! I feel like I've had a roller coaster of emotions since COVID hit the U.S. Every day is a new adventure. I'm almost afraid to turn the news on each night to see what's going on. I decided to take a break from social media for the weekend. I have felt so much better, that I'm going to extend it this week. I will create posts here and share them to my social media platforms. But as far as scrolling through my feed.....I'm too old and cranky to deal with people who are posting some outrageous things. Need a break from social media? You'll survive. And you may just find time to get to some of those books you've been wanting to read. Or crochet, or paint, or ...

You may have heard about "contact tracing" on the news. I don't know about you, but I am learning a LOT of new phrases with COVID! So what is contact tracing? According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC): "Contact tracing is used by health departments to prevent the spread of infectious disease. In general, contact tracing involves identifying people who have an infectious disease (cases) and people who they came in contact with (contacts) and working with them to interrupt disease spread."   Still sound confusing? If you test positive for COVID, the your health department should call you. They will tell you what you need to do. If you are sick with COVID Since COVID (Coronavirus) can be easily spread, it's important that a sick person stays away from everyone else ( self isolates .) That means you stay away from everyone else for 2 weeks - staying in a separate bedroom (or another room), and use your own bathroom if possible That also means not...