My Life as an Asthma Mom

  Many people have joked that the year 2020 is a dumpster fire.  Sadly, we have areas of the U.S. that are literally on fire (no dumpsters -  but plenty of forests.) My friends that live in California and Oregon have been posting photos online. And I am terrified for them - because they have asthma. And smoke and asthma are NOT a good mix. One year, Son #2 ended up in ICU from the smoke from a local forest fire. I will never forget that trip to the hospital! He had been in the hospital before for his asthma (and pneumonia), but this was the first time he was in ICU. And it was traumatic. So, anytime we get smoke from forest fires, it worries me! We have smoke in our state from the California and Oregon fires. And it has traveled all the way to the East Coast of the U.S. !  The size of the fires is off the charts. As of this writing, the California fires have burned 3.2 MILLION acres and killed 25 people. I'm not sure of the cause of death for those people (it makes me shudder to wo

  I was chatting with a friend who is a former paramedic and firefighter. And I wondered - what happens to her lungs from fighting fires?   I know there are many jobs where someone with asthma can have irritants at their job. (Not irritating people - we all have one of those at work!) 😆 Irritants means things we breathe in that makes our lungs irritated. Known as o ccupational asthma , there are many things that can make our asthma lungs cranky.  This includes: Animals (dander, fur, saliva and poop) Chemicals (paint or varnish, laminates, glues, etc) Metals (chromium, platinum, nickel sulfate) Plant products (flour, cereals, wheat, rye, flax, hemp, cotton or natural latex) Enzymes (flour conditioners or detergents) Irritants (smoke, chlorine gas, and sulfur dioxide) But what about firefighters? I know they wear respirators, but if they are in a house or business that is burning -  how does that affect their lungs? I mean, that's a LOT of smoke! What about firefighters that have as