Skip to main content

World Asthma Day 2018


World Asthma Awareness 

Oh my! So here is it May 1 and somehow it completely slipped my attention that today was World Asthma Day. And how crazy is that given how much my experiences with Asthma influenced my life?!? Honestly. I have had several scares throughout my life as a result of my asthma. In honor of today's awareness to something so common and yet underestimated condition, I'd like to share the story of one event with you. Maybe it will help explain how scary asthma can be for some people.

It was Easter break. I could be wrong but I believe it was 1986 or 1987. I only remember that it was around that time because I was already very fond of my stepfather. We had a bit of a rocky start complete with me trying to bite him and him biting me back which was a first for me and it got my attention. But I digress. So by the time of this particular easter break, we were close, so I must have been about 10 years old. I was off school at the time and I remember being super frustrated because I wanted to play with my cousins and friends but I had caught the flu so I was stuck in the house. I was sick during a holiday break!?!?! Ugh. Already by that age, I had developed into a voracious reader as a result of my frequent illnesses but this event was a bit different from others before and after. I was restless but also so unbelievably tired. It took all of my energy to to focus on anything and just taking my nebulizer treatments was a chore so I slept a lot. Mostly cuddled up on my mom's lap as much as I could when she was home from work. Then one night I remember crawling onto the couch next to her feeling like I wanted nothing more than to just remember my momma rubbing my ears before I died. I don't know how this thought can possibly go through a child's head but I do remember clearly that I knew then that I was going to die. I put my head down on my momma's lap, closed my eyes, and felt that blissful feeling of having her rub my ears softly and sing to me as I fell asleep.

I'm not sure how long I was asleep but the next thing I remember is my mother shaking me trying to wake me up. She had this bizarre sound of panic and terror in her voice that I had never heard before. I tried to respond but everything was so fuzzy and I was so tired. I don't remember much about what happened then. The next thing I remember is being in the hospital on a bed and feeling awake a bit of agitated all of a sudden. (I imagine at that point they've given me epinephrine and steroids which always has that effect on me.) There is a nurse sitting on the bed and she asks me to sit up so she can put a different IV in me. So I sit up and watch as she fumbles with the line and all of sudden I'm bleeding all over the bed and floor and I'm pretty sure that this is not a good thing but she just belly laughs and belts out "Wow! You have some juicy veins, don't you!" Yep. I'm dead and this is hell. They're going to bleed me to 'death' and laugh about it the whole time for the rest of eternity. If only I hadn't stolen that last cookie from mema's kitchen or poured shampoo on the bathroom floor to use as a slip and slide. All of this is going through my head but I am so mesmerized by the scene on the bed and the nurse still smiling and chuckling with blood all over her scrubs as she tries to fix the IV line that I fail to see my poor momma and stepfather in the room. I don't even see the big plastic tent that they are bringing in. In hindsight, I suppose it was all a good thing because the IV experience distracted me from the reality of how scared my parents were and the imminent quarantine that I was about to experience for a week: The Oxygen Tent.

You know. I never did figure out why they insisted that I remain in that tent no matter what. Even to go potty. I felt so claustrophobic that I often stuck my mouth out of this small opening in the front because I wanted to breathe 'real air'. I think the nurse gently smacked my mouth at least a few times when they caught me doing that. I still did it anyway. It turns out the oxygen tent was probably warranted in this case, though. As I learned that week and came to really appreciate even more as I grew up is that asthmatics who have the flu are at higher risk for developing pneumonia which was what happened to me that easter break. I honestly do not remember the exact details of what capacity each lung was functioning at but, no surprise, it wasn't good. So I stayed in the hospital for a week, put on a clear liquid diet and pumped full of steroids. I'd say it was awful but truth be told, my stepfather snuck in my favorite candy: Bonkers. We hid them from the nurse. Best. Dad. Ever!

So asthma. Yeah. Not everyone will have an experience like that but it isn't exactly unheard of, either. Medicine and the treatment of asthma has improved greatly since that time so I want to reassure any of you parents that while it is nothing to take lightly, asthma is also not nearly as scary as it once was. Work with your doctors to figure out triggers and then figure out what your plan to manage those.

Love & Bear Hugs,
Jen

Comments

  1. Really nice content in this blog.

    Thank you for sharing!

    asthma homeopathy

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hello

    There is a lot more to teach on this. You can search for online college courses that point on this.

    Greetings,
    Oscar

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

join Allergic Living's response to Chatelaine article - It's Just Nuts

Blue Bear Aware received the following letter from Pam, Associate Editor, Allergic Living and BC Anaphylaxis Advocate 'I am writing to you for your support. In the December issue of Chatelaine, writer Patricia Pearson's article, 'It's Just Nuts' offers up a distorted view of the kids with food allergies in our schools. You can read the article at the following link: http://en.chatelaine.com/english/weekend/article.jsp?content=20091001_150000_0023 Please e-mail me back if you want to have your signature added to the following letter, which we are sending to Chatelaine magazine and asking their editors to publish. I need your name, city/town/prov, and e-mail - the latter for verification only from Chatelaine's fact-checker. e.g. NOT for publication. pamela2543@shaw.ca I need these soonest. It will then be sent to Chatelaine on behalf of all of us. Please pass this letter on to your network of friends and family so they can add their voices. T

Bluebearaware.com Store is closing

Store Closing We've heard that before... On December 31, 2018, the storefront for  bluebearaware.com  will be shut down. As the owner of this amazing online retailer, I can assure you that this is a genuine closing. Further, I do not have any intention of selling the business. On the contrary, I plan to keep Blue Bear alive. YES! We'll still be here. Just not selling products for the foreseeable future. What can you expect to see in the future? I love bringing smiles to people's faces. I love knowing that I have made someone feel important. To let them know that I see them and they matter. I have a big a-s, bleeding heart. I know it. I own it. I want to save the world, one person at a time. I've been a crisis counselor. I've worked with the women's shelter. In our food allergic community, I started as a support group leader. To say that those experiences were rewarding is absolutely an understatement, but my life has changed since then. I have so

Blogging about The Blue Bear Aware bloggy Blog

Shortly after acquiring Blue Bear Aware, it quickly hit me how much I had taken on myself. I realized that I didn't necessarily want to give any of it up as a whole, but the easiest way for me to continue writing, food allergy support, advocacy, running BlueBearAware.com , working Full Time outside the home, raising two children, keeping house and try (I do try) to be a good wife, yada yada yada... was to simplify areas of my life. If you know me, then you know how incredibly difficult that is for me to do but I knew I needed to do that and it would require some hard decisions. One of the first decisions that I made to start simplifying was to significantly reduce the number of support groups I lead or played admin for. I began by turning over the Ann Arbor No Nuts Moms Support Group Leadership to three awesome ladies. I'm so glad they stepped up to take the group on because these three have proven to be an incredible team dedicated to connecting with and helping the food a