My Life as an Asthma Mom

      For those of us with asthma, controlling the swelling in our lungs is important. If we having swelling in our lungs, and then get sick - we can easily develop pneumonia or bronchitis and end up in the hospital. This has happened to my children many times.    We make sure we have refills on our daily, controller (anti inflammatory) inhalers, and when we only have a couple of refills left, we set an appointment with the doctor to make sure we have more refills.      We also make sure we have a reliever inhaler - and I have them in several places so I don't have to run far if I have a sudden asthma attack. I have one in my purse, one in my nightstand upstairs, and one at my desk downstairs - just in case.      When I get really sick (I'm looking at you COVID), my cough is so severe that it's literally impossible for me to use an inhaler. I can only use my nebulizer for breathing treatments. It allows me to just sit and breathe i...

  The flu is raging across the U.S. right now, and my local TV station is reporting high hospitalization rates. Yikes! This worries me because asthma makes every respiratory infection worse. And the flu can lead to pneumonia - which can be deadly.  In fact, my two youngest kids were hospitalized repeatedly when they were little - thanks to RSV and pneumonia. I have also been in Urgent Care a few times with the flu.  What flu symptoms should you watch for?  Symptoms of the flu:  High fever and chills  Body aches Extreme weakness or fatigue Headache Constant cough  Diarrhea or vomiting Stuffy or runny nose  Sore throat  With asthma, you can have swelling in the lungs, which can make any infection worse. Sigh.  Sometimes I wonder if I should tough it out, or go the ER or hospital?   Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America   (AFFA) list  Emergency flu symptoms  for CHILDREN:   AAFA's website recommends CALLING ...