My Life as an Asthma Mom

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...

Yep, it's that time of year again.  Summer camp.  I am NOT a big fan of summer camp. Many parents probably worry when their kids are at camp because they miss their child, worry that they might be home sick, etc.   But, when you have a kid with allergies and asthma, we worry about things like - oh, breathing. You know...that thing that keeps you alive. Daughter Kitty is at a church camp. And it's REALLY far from the closest town (and cell service), so that makes me nervous. There is a caretaker couple that lives in a house at the campground, and they have a land line, so I guess there is ONE way for Kitty to contact me if needed. The other bad part is....well...you are out in nature! To quote Melman the Giraffe from the movie Madagascar,   "Ahhhhh! Nature! It's all over me! Get it off!"  There's no getting away from nature when you are camping. It's not being at home, eating dinner on the patio, and then going back into...

So....here we are at Asthma Doc's office - again...... Daughter Kitty is really having a hard time with her asthma. She is on the highest dose of a combination medicine and still can't control it. In fact, she's been in her "yellow zone" for almost 2 months.  This is an Asthma Action Plan from the Utah Department of Health. They are just like Stop Lights (Green, Yellow and Red.) And just like Stop Lights, yellow means "caution" or "warning" - your asthma is getting worse! If you keep getting worse, you may drop in the Red Zone - which means get to the hospital ASAP or all 911. Since Kitty was in the hospital 4 times when she was younger for asthma, we would like to AVOID that again. So, the next step for her is to get Prednisone (a corticosteroid.) A corticosteroid is a medicine that brings the swelling down in her lungs. (It can be used for other things too like arthritis, lupus, etc.) Don't panic - they're ...

 It's spacer time! (Not to be confused with Hammer time.....yes I remember the MC Hammer song from the 90's..... ) And no, I did NOT own a pair of parachute pants! Spacers are one of those things that are SO important to use with an inhaler, but many people don't know about them. In fact, when I help families learn about asthma, the #1 thing that helps them is to learn about spacers. I have had so many people tell me that they seem to feel better just by adding a spacer to their inhaler. What is a spacer? As you can see from the picture above, it's a tube like device that attaches to your inhaler. Some are also called "holding chambers" because they "hold" the medicine with a one way valve until you inhale it.  So, why use one? Well, I know this is hard to read, but this slide is from a training I attended. It was from a respiratory therapist showing how fast the spray comes out of an inhaler. He showed that it came o...

Since I have SO much free time (wait......I am laughing so hard I need to catch my breath........)  As I was saying, with all my free time, I decided to take the Certified Asthma Educator Exam. Studying for it is like being back in college! I thought I would do a little "light reading" on a recent flight. I have my trusty pen to underline important parts of the book. I was hoping I could have a little peace and quiet and be able to read on the flight. I just happened to be reading a section that said,  "Why in people with asthma do the bronchial tubes react to asthmatic triggers in the way that they do, when the very same stimuli have no effect on the airways of someone without asthma?" "That's for sure!" I said to my husband. He looked over at me wondering what I was talking about, and I showed him that paragraph in the book.    I had noticed earlier that the woman sitting in the row in front of me had a REALLY stinky swee...