My Life as an Asthma Mom

This falls under the category of "What a Great Idea!" and "Thank You From Tired Parents in the Hospital!" If you haven't heard of Pokemon Go, you must be living under a rock somewhere. Seriously.  This game has taken the world by storm! Millions of people are using their smart phones to capture Pokemon in real world locations. If you have seen a large crows gathered around at places that don't usually have crowds (the library, police station, etc) and they are all glued to their phones, chances are that they are catching Pokemon. So, what happens when you are a kid and you are stuck in the hospital? You have someone play Pokemon Go for you! A group of college students  from BYU (Brigham Young University) created "Go For Good" (By the way, I am a BYU alumni and I think those students are brilliant!)  So, what is Go For Good, and how does it work?  1. Volunteer "trainers" connect with kids via video-confe...

    One of the things that helps our family control our asthma is cleaning. For those of you who read this regularly, you will know that Hubby and I and all 3 kids have allergies. The 3 kids and I all have asthma.  There are so many things that can make your asthma worse, or "trigger" or cause an asthma attack.The American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology has a page on their website about common asthma triggers. Triggers can be different for everyone, and change over time.  Dust has always been a problem for me. It's so hard to keep things clean and dust free. We have wood floors, which really helps because you can SEE all the dust and suck it up with the vacuum. Some people hate having wood floors (because you can see dirt, crumbs, etc.) but I LOVE them. In fact, we live in a historic AKA old house. One of the things I love about my historic house is that is has wood floors. They were covered up with carpet when we bought the hou...

Well......I'm VERY late in posting about this, but better late than never! Sarah Jessica Parker has a son with severe food allergies, and he experienced anaphylaxis as a young child. Her son is now a teenager, but they learned a lot along the way. She would like to hear about other families that deal with severe allergies (food, latex, stinging insects, and medication allergies) and anaphylaxis.  You can make a short 5 minute video and submit it.    Winners will get to premier their film in New York City! The deadline is today, July 11th 2016!!!! She teemed up with Anaphylaxis for REEL  - get it? Reel as in film reel? What should you include in your video? In an email from Allergy & Asthma Network, it said: "What are the challenges you face managing your allergies and avoiding anaphylaxis?" "How do you overcome those challenges?" "What do you want other patients and ...

Being a parent is hard.  Having a chronically ill child (or children) is hard too.  Some days you think, "Will it ever get better?!"   I had friends whose kids NEVER seemed to be sick. Or, they would get a "little cold" and sniffle for a week and be done. My kids would get "a little cold", get pneumonia and end up in the hospital. A coughing kid can wake me out of a dead sleep faster than anything. "Who's coughing?" I yell, as I run from bedroom to bedroom with my heart pounding in my chest.  That's how it would start at our house. A little cold. A little cough. And then it would go downhill from there. We did everything right. Washed our hands. Used paper towels to open the door handle in public bathrooms. Washed our hands again as soon as we got home. Got flu shots every year. And we even had the pneumonia vaccine! Made our home allergy and asthma friendly by tearing out the carpet so we could have the ...

It's that time of year again....Independence Day is coming up!  And the 4th of July means all of my neighbors will be lighting fireworks. The entire block will be full of smoke.....which is a major problem when you have asthma. I love fireworks as much as the next person, but if I didn't have to deal with all of the smoke, it would be so much more fun! The city displays are always fun, because the smoke is higher up in the sky. For neighborhood fireworks, the smoke is down on the ground because everyone is lighting off the cheap fireworks. Did you know that fireworks can cause problems with asthma? I can tell you personal stories, but I also found a study from Spain about fireworks and breathing problems.  "The different colours and effects produced in these displays are achieved by adding metals to the gunpowder. When a pyrotechnic display takes place it releases a lot of smoke, liberating minute metallic particles (of a few microns in si...

Coughing is one of those things that makes me sit up and listen. When my kids were little, they were sick - ALOT! They ended up in the hospital many times for asthma and pneumonia. So, every time one of my kids starts coughing, it makes me worried. Son #1 was just coughing before he went to bed. I asked if he had been playing Ultimate Frisbee with his buddies, but he said no. He has exercise induced asthma, so Frisbee games, running, hiking, etc will set off his asthma. Usually I have to remind him to use his inhaler if he's coughing. He said he noticed his asthma was flaring up the last few nights (he wast telling me this as he was coughing......). I said, "Well - use your inhaler - that's what it's for!" Son #1 said,  "Oh....yeah." Sigh. I heard him coughing before he went to bed, and then during the night. The pollen count is really high right now, and he has allergies. But he always showers before he goes to bed at night. So, that...

So, we were back at Asthma Doc's office AGAIN. Daughter Kitty is still having a tough time with her asthma (what else is new?) This time, we were there for a Spirometry test.   It's a lung function test that can tell how well your lungs are doing. It measures how MUCH air you breathe in and breathe out, and how FAST you breathe out. They can use the test to diagnose asthma and COPD.    I was surprised to see that Kitty's graph looked normal. Asthma Doc was a little surprised too. Smart man that he is, he wondered if there is something else that is causing Kitty to have problems breathing. He asked if she feels it more in her lungs, or in her throat? I was surprised when Kitty said she felt it more in her throat.  One of the things that can be confused with asthma is Vocal Chord Dysfunction. Vocal what??  AAAAI -  American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology explains it this way: "Vocal Cord Dysfunction (VCD) occurs when the...