12:30 a.m.
It’s been a long day and I’m finally crawling into bed. I’m about to turn out the light when I hear her. A dry, consistent cough. She had her inhaler before she went to bed tonight but apparently, it wasn’t enough. She coughs again, the choking, raspy, consistent cough. She could throw up any minute. I run to the kitchen for an ampule for the nebulizer and the puke bucket (5-gallon ice cream buckets work well for this). I grab a clean towel from the bathroom on my way back to her bed.
12:38 a.m.
I cover her blanket with a towel and put the bucket next to her. I empty the medicine into the nebulizer and start it up.
12:39 a.m.
I put the nebulizer in her mouth and snuggle next to her listening to the purr of the machine that’s keeping my daughter breathing. She is so used to it, she sleeps right through it. I flick the medicine cup occasionally to make sure she gets all of it and then have her take a drink to rinse her mouth (otherwise she can get thrush).
12:47 a.m.
The treatment is done and she’s quit coughing, for now. I turn off the machine and try to fall asleep again, wondering how long it might be until my sweet 7-year-old struggles to breathe again.
I can’t begin to tell you how many nights I’ve spent like this over the past 15 years since my oldest was diagnosed with asthma as a baby. For years, I felt guilty that all 3 of my children have suffered from this difficult disease thinking there had to have been something I could have done to prevent it. I did all the “right” things. I breastfed them, I didn’t send them to daycare and I have never smoked and yet they all have suffered from asthma.
Truth is, those things can heighten your child’s chances of having the disease, but it can also be caused by genetics. No matter how, when, or why your child has asthma, getting them the best medical care is what is important.
Before I had children diagnosed with asthma, I didn’t know much beyond what I had seen in movies. Now that this is part of our story, I can tell you it’s not much like the stereotype you might have seen.
8.3% of kids in the United States and over 6 million children worldwide have asthma and they’re just normal kids. Normal kids who at times feel like they’re trying to breathe through a coffee straw. It’s not about trying to get air in, they struggle to get the air out and sometimes feel like they’re suffocating.
I asked my niece and daughter what they would like you to know about living with this disease and they said:
“We can’t just keep going. We aren’t faking. When we say we need to stop, we need to stop. We can breathe, it’s just hard. Sometimes it feels like there is an elephant sitting on my chest when I try to breathe.
Some people use asthma as a crutch but we don’t. Some people constantly say they need their inhaler and give the rest of us a bad name. We wonder what it would be like to breathe without it.”
I wish there was a cure for asthma but I’m grateful for how far medicine has come with treatments for it. Decades ago, they only had morphine to give asthma patients which only masked the issues and usually ended up killing the patients. Our family has been so grateful for the amazing doctors at Idaho Allergy and Asthma who specialize an Asthma Action Plan for each child and work with you to find the best medications for them. Dr. Gene Petty and Dr. Dave Petty are dedicated to giving allergy and asthma patients a better quality of life and we are glad to have them right here in town.
They can also test for allergies if needed. Allergies tend to go hand in hand with asthma and is one of the three main types, exercise and viral being the others. Between my 3 children, they have all three types covered so we deal with it year round. Thus why I jokingly call the 4 seasons Springergies, Summasthma, Fallergies, and Whenasthma.
We have learned to use aerochambers, peak flow meters, oximeters, and nebulizers. We feel like experts when it comes to using inclined pillows, shower steam, and medications to keep their flare-ups at a minimal. I still get scared though in the middle of an attack because I know how critical every minute can be.
Most of us as new parents struggle to not watch our babies every time they’re sleeping to make sure they’re still breathing. Since my children have struggled with asthma, I continued to be hypervigilant for years. I’d pray for silent nights of no coughing and then be terrified when I didn’t wake up to coughing fearing the worst.
I’ve wished for people understood how hard it is to send my kids off to school, camps, and even play dates. I never know when something might trigger their asthma and they will have an attack. But as they’ve gotten older, they are better at knowing when an attack is coming on. It’s hard to educate schools and even family members on the seriousness of this disease and help them to understand how to keep my children safe.
I have strong reasons to be worried and cautious, 10 people die every day from asthma and I’m going to do everything I can to keep my kids becoming a statistic. It’s heartbreaking to watch your child struggle to get solid breaths knowing they’ve had all the meds they can have and you just have to wait it out or head to the hospital if they continue to struggle. Hoping and praying they’ll make it through an asthma attack and that all the meds they are on will keep it under control is not easy. Having my children sick for weeks on end is miserable.
When my kids get a cold, it’s not a night or two of coughing. It is often at least a week with throwing up and lots of treatments. When they have P.E., their inhaler needs to be nearby in case they need it. No, your MLM product will not heal my child. I appreciate your concern and how oils help you but oils can trigger an asthma attack for my child so it’s not worth the risk. I’m grateful that most people are just trying to be helpful and many are wanting to be informed.
I hope that my children and others with asthma can continue to bust through the stereotypes as they continue to live as normal lives as possible.
This night wasn’t the worst. We made it through with only nebulizer treatments every 4 hours. She was able to get some sleep and didn’t spend the night coughing and puking. I had her sleep on an inclined pillow and stayed nearby checking on her often. I’m amazed by how well my children handle their asthma and complain very little.
I’m thankful for their overall good health and try to never take it for granted. I hope and pray every day that they will just keep breathing, grateful that they have.
*See www.AAFA.org for more information
