My Life as an Asthma Mom

  I was putting on my makeup one morning and noticed my cheeks looked puffy - like a chipmunk storing it's nuts.  What the......?!  Was the lighting bad? Did I sleep on one side too long?  I went through work all day, and just tried to adjust the lighting on Zoom calls so my face wasn't as visible.  Finally it dawned on me....I was on a new treatment plan using high doses every day. New treatment plan Round Two with COVID was in February, and Allergy & Asthma Doc wanted to try something new.  Those of us with severe asthma often need prednisone when we get sick. We have a habit of getting REALLY sick. I mean - Go Big or Go Home!  This time, she wanted me to add another controller inhaler to my regular, daily controller.  I take 2 puffs (morning and night) or my regular controller inhaler.  Then, she wanted me to add ANOTHER corticosteroid controller inhaler on top of that. 4 puffs morning and night.  Yep - a combined total of 6 puff...

  I'm old, so my car radio is set to NPR. As I am driving to the Allergist's office, I am listening to NPR's "Fresh Air" with Terry Goss.  Today he is interviewing Theresa MacPhail (a Medical Anthropologist), who wrote a book titled, " Allergic: Our Irritated Bodies in a Changing World" Well, that's ironic, isn't it? I'm listening to an interview about allergies as I am driving to my Allergist's Office....... As I was driving, Theresa MacPhail was talking about the "Farm Theory" (also called the Hygiene Hypothesis). Have you ever heard of that?  The theory is that kids are less likely to develop allergies and asthma if they grow up in rural areas, around animals, and in big families.  Why? The idea behind this is that when kids are young, they are exposed to lots of germs and infections from older siblings, farm animals and pets, and that helps them build up their immune system.  How? The constant exposure to bacteria, viruses, ...

  There are a LOT of awareness month, but this one is the most important to me.  It literally changed my life, and the life of my 3 kids. 23 years ago, our lives were forever changed when my middle son ended up in the hospital, and the respiratory therapist told  us that he has asthma.  What??!! But I asked my pediatrician if Son #2 has asthma, and he said no. He said it was "just a virus". The respiratory therapist said, "It's asthma alright - that's why he's being admitted to the hospital.." And life took a left when I had planned to go right.  Eventually, all 3 kids (and I) were diagnosed with asthma.  We are a family of 5. All 5 have allergies (year-round), 4 have asthma, and 2 of us have food allergies. I went back to college to get another degree, then changed professions to work full time as a Health Educator and Certified Asthma Educator. I now work for a national non profit and provide allergy & asthma education to people across the U.S.  ...

  Now that we're in year 3 of COVID, I know most people have gone back to Life as Normal. But, I am still afraid of getting sick.  There's good reason for that! We are a family of 5, and 4 of us have asthma. Severe asthma. When my kids were little, they were in the hospital 12 times - and 2 of those were ICU. They had the "crash cart" outside my kid's room - and I still have PTSD because of the reoccurring stress and trauma.  The cause of being in the hospital so many times? Pneumonia (for most of them), and a few of the times the culprit was wildfire smoke.  Now that my kids are adults we still battle respiratory diseases. They haven't been in the hospital for 15 years - but we all still have Urgent Care and ER visits for asthma.  And we will - for the rest of our lives. Asthma doesn't go away. If pneumonia wasn't bad enough for us, along comes COVID. Both times we have had COVID, we have been very sick - and almost ended up back in the hospital.  Man...

  A few years ago, I coordinate an Asthma Home Visit Program.  I provided in-depth asthma education to families.I know that doctors would like to spend more time providing education to their patients, but they just don't have time.  You may have been diagnosed with asthma while in the hospital, or at a doctor's office. And the doctor can explain a LOT of things - all at once. It's like trying to drink out of a fire hydrant. When I meet with families, I try to reinforce what the doctor explained to them, and then fill in the gaps about how to control their asthma.  It's good to learn about medications and asthma triggers, but it's also important to learn how to make a home allergy & asthma friendly. When I say "home", that can mean apartment, house, trailer home, condo, whatever they consider a home. During one visit, a woman answered the door and said, "If you are going to tell me to get rid of my dog, you can just turn around and walk back out th...

 It seems like we'll never get away from COVID.  People are still getting COVID, and the number of people with Long COVID is growing. I belong to a social media group for other people with Long COVID. It's a place where people can share their symptoms, struggles, and treatment plans that worked for them.  I had COVID last year and missed a month of work. In additional to my high dose dual maintenance inhaler, I needed oral steroids, Paxlovid, and breathing treatments every 4 hours - around the clock. I had a very difficult time getting my energy level back, and my oxygen level rarely went above 91. I know that there are many ways to assess asthma, and relying only on oxygen levels isn't the best idea.  As a Certified Asthma Educator, I teach families to look at signs and symptoms too. I had fatigue, a persistent cough, shortness of breath, a hard time sleeping (unless I was propped upright), etc etc For some reason, I didn't feel like I needed oxygen.  I'll ord...

 I was watching Glass Onion and I was surprised at the ending.  I can NEVER figure out murder mysteries and am always wrong about "who done it" In fact, the movie was so fast paced that I missed a lot of things. So I decided to put on the closed captioning so I could watch it again.  I saw the scene where a character dies of anaphylaxis (oh.....is that what killed him?) But then I thought, wait a minute! You can't die that fast from an allergen! In the movie, Big Burly Guy says he "doesn't do pineapple". (I missed that the first time.) At the end of the movie, when the detective was doing a recap of what happened, he talked about how Big Burly Guy died. That the Slimy Guy had put pineapple juice into Big Burly Guy's drink It showed a clip of Big Burly Guy grabbing his throat, staggering for about 10 seconds, and then collapsing and dying Hold the phone!  Why can't movies show anaphylaxis or asthma attacks correctly? Ugh!  Death doesn't happen ins...