My Life as an Asthma Mom

  One thing that always bothered me over the years with our family of 5 is where to stay for the holidays. We would usually travel hours to see a family member, who insisted that EVERYONE stay at her house. No matter that there wasn't enough room.... She would tell me that my kids could sleep on the couch, or buy an air mattress and sleep on the floor.  How is that a fun thing for the holidays? I will have kids that are sleep deprived and cranky from trying not to roll off the couch.   And 5 of us are fighting to use the one guest bathroom.  Was that a status thing for families? It was some sort of badge of honor to have children and grandchildren all under one roof? As many as you could squeeze in? One time, Family Member wanted 4 families (and their kids) to all stay at her house.  While Family Member had the luxury of a large master bedroom, complete with a walk in closet and full sized bathroom with a jetted tub.......all to herself?  Yet we were s...

 Our family has always been VERY cautious around other sick people. With a family of 5 (4 of whom have asthma), we have a habit of getting very sick - very fast. In fact, my kids were in the hospital 12 times when they were young (two of those were ICU stays.) Needless to say, we are all germaphobes. And we were germaphobes long before COVID reared its ugly head.  Since covid started, we have avoided church, family parties, receptions, weddings, and baby showers. In fact, we had friends that were supposed to come over for Thanksgiving dinner. But, the daughter was sick and coughing.  The parents said she would wear a mask  - but I knew she would have to take it off to eat. I would have to watch her like a hawk and as soon as she took her last bite of food, I would have to tell her to put her mask back on.  Either way, it would expose my family to her respiratory illness. She didn't have asthma, but she was coughing. I could just imagine how bad our cough would b...

  It’s that time of year again, the holidays! There are so many allergy & asthma triggers that can make our family miserable. We are a family of 5 – all 5 have allergies, 4 have asthma, and 2 have food allergies. So we try to be careful year round – but there are more challenges during the holidays. Christmas trees I see so many commercials or holiday ads with people driving their car with a Christmas tree strapped to the top. That must be nice I mutter to myself as they drive by. We are all allergic to live Christmas trees, so we have an artificial tree. I know it’s not the same as the smell of a freshly cut tree, but we can’t have one in our house. Instead, we have a fairly good looking artificial tree that is scent free. So that works for us. Stress and strong emotions Stress is another asthma trigger that gets to me at the holidays. This year, we have decided to take a trip instead of buying sweaters and socks of other ‘stuff’.   My kids are all adults...

  I've been watching the news and every channel has been having stories about RSV. But, each channel is saying that RSV is only dangerous to babies and older people.  I'm yelling at my TV It's not just for babies! When my son was only 5 years old, he was hospitalized with RSV Yes, 5.  It's so important that people know that older kids can get RSV and end up in the hospital!  My son is an adult now, but years ago, he was sick all the time. All the time.  He has severe asthma, and would always get sicker than my other kids. And he would be sick for a lot longer than my other kids.  One time, Son #2 looked terrible and I knew it was time for a trip to the ER.  I remember the doctors in the ER saying hmmm....what could it be? I guess we should test your son for RSV, but I've never heard of a kid that age ending up in the hospital with RSV.   Silly doctor. He hasn't met our family yet!  We are always the 1%   CDC says RSV can look l...

    I'm a little late in posting about sending kids to college, but you know how it goes.... work projects take priority. I only have one kid left in college, but I still worry about all of my adult kids! My mom always said,   "Once you're a mom, you're a mom for the rest of your life." I have to laugh when young moms say 'it must be nice to not have to worry about your kids anymore.' Amateurs I didn't stop being a mom when my kids turn 18. Maybe some parents are like that - 'good luck with the rest of your life!' I will always worry about my adult kids especially because they have chronic health problems like allergies, food allergies, and asthma.  But I tried to teach them life skills so they could be independent. They REALLY hated that when they were younger, but I told them they would thank me later When it came time to for each of them to go to college, they could do the basics: Do their laundry Balance their bank accounts Maintain their c...

       I was in a cooking class this week with a group of friends. We were listening to the chef tell us about his experience cooking for other people (including famous people and several US presidents!)  We were chatting about food allergies and he said:  “I hate it when people come here with food allergies.” For once in my life, I had a snappy come back! (Don't you hate it when you think of something the next day that you "should have said"?) I quickly replied:    “ Well, I hate trying to find a safe place to eat!”  That didn’t seem to phase him, so I said  “Did you know that from ingestion to death, it can be as little as 30 minutes?!”   (Graphic from Allergy & Asthma Network ) He seemed surprised to hear that My cooking group went on to tell him that he really needed to have a epinephrine auto injectors in his cooking school  - just in case  He said that that "No. I don't have to do that. The people coming to ...

  As I round the corner at the store, I am surprised to see aisles filled with school supplies.  Is it that time already?! My kids are too old to worry about Back to School time.  But when they were little....it was VERY important to me.  In fact - I would try to be the first parent at Back To School Night so I could sign up as Room Parent.  Was I in to planning class parties? Field trips? Decorating the teacher's door for Teacher Appreciation Week?  Not really... As a mom to three kids with asthma, I was always worried. Their asthma was hard to control, even Asthma Specialist was puzzled. My two youngest kids ended up in the hospital 12 times (2 ICU's) So I was always on edge. I couldn't just send them off to school each day and relax.  I wouldn't go too far from home. I would try to run quick errands, but would sometimes get calls from the school that one of my kids was having an attack. I would have to leave my grocery store in the middle of the ais...