ASTHMA CAN BE DEVASTATING NOT JUST TO THE PERSON WHO SUFFERS FROM IT, BUT TO THE ENTIRE FAMILY! My twin daughters inherited the disease from their father...(boy, was I niave....I hoped my "healthy genes" would be dominant--they weren't!!) :roll: Well I could hope, right!
8O SLEEP DEPRIVATION RULED. For the first SEVEN YEARS a full night's sleep was a once in a year occurence. NO KIDDING!!! Between "croup" (which was finally not an issue only 12 years later) and asthma we were up nightly rocking or comforting our sick little girls.
"COLDS" WERE TRIGGERS FOR SEVERE ASTHMA ATTACKS.
When a bug struck, we knew it was only a matter of time before we'd be making another trip to see the pedetrician. In the meantime, we provided at home inhalation therapy using a nebulizer and special prescribed drugs to help the girls manage their asthma. At night, the neighbors frequently heard squeeky wagon wheels turning in the middle of the night as we took a walk around the block in the cool night air to help provide relief.
EVERYONE KNEW US AT THE CLINIC...even the after hours, on call telephone lady knew us! If I received even minimum pay for the number of hours spent at the clinic, I'd have a nice little nest egg set aside.
MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT EMERGENCY ROOM TRIPS WERE GRUELING and not taken lightly because the time clock still had to be punched a few hours later. We had to travel 25 miles through deer country before we reached help and at a time when drunks typically ruled the highways. When the roads were slick, or the fog was so thick it could be cut with a knife, the trip was extremely dangerous. Once there, we knew it would be hours before we knew if the latest inhalation treatment would work well enough to allow us to return home, or if there would be yet another admission.
SOMETIMES THE ATTENDING ER PHYSCIAN SENT US HOME EARLY ONLY TO FIND THE CHILD ADMITTED ANYWAY THE NEXT MORNING. As parents we knew the pattern. We knew the early signs of distress and we could accurately gauge how soon the croup-asthma combination would become a grave life and death struggle. Take the child in too early and the ER doctor might prescribe a "steamy shower" home therapy which NEVER WORKED! Even if insurance wouldn't help cover it, one night we insisted upon the sick child being admitted because we knew the progression! This ER MD was so arrogant...he figured our ten year old would be sent home early the next day so he didn't bother to document her meds record. Three days later coming out of the bathroom, she had a grand mal seisure, pulling the IV pole on top of her when she hit the floor. The entire hospital-clinic staff (including the custodial crew!) seemed to go out of their way to apologize for THEIR screw up.
EVERYONE KNEW US ON THE PEDS WARD AT THE HOSPITAL. The girls were EACH hospitalized over 15 times for week + long admissions. When combined with viral and bacterial infections ASTHMA CAN BE DEADLY. It is heart wrenching to watch your child struggle to breath. More than once the girls faced the very real threat of having an emergency trachetomy to open up the airways if they didn't respond to the meds being given intravenously.
INSURANCE COMPANIES WAS PROBLEMATIC. Summer and Fall were the seasons that affected the girls the worst. Their grass and weed allergies had a great deal to do with their susceptibility at that time of the year. When they were twelve, our MDs told us we had to have air conditioning installed to help curtail the girl's asthma so they wrote letters to our health insurance company explaining the medical need. While the insurance company acknowledged the validity of the request for three members of our household, they denied the reimbursement saying that the other two members in the family who did not have asthma would also benefit. Go Figure! AIR CONDITIONING HELPED TO MINIMIZE FUTURE PROBLEMS AND SAVED THEM A BUNDLE! :x
OUR NEIGHBORS WERE A GOD SENT!
We had no family close enough to help manage the care of the other twin and their little brother when one was admitted. Bless everyone who not only understands but actually lends a helping hand in times of need! Our friends and neighbors enabled us to spend 23 hours a day with the hospitalized child.
YES, IT WAS DIFFICULT TO NUTURE ASTHMATICS. Today the drug, Advair, has been a godsend to severe asthmatics.
