Asthma

HL had his second asthma "attack" yesterday. His first came on while we were in Iowa this June. We were hoping it was just triggered by something that his body was not used to. Not so, apparently. As anyone who knows us knows, we certainly do not have a sterile environment here at home- especially since we share our home with a big dog. We also try to expose our children to many different environments/animals not only in the interest of learning, but to (hopefully) lessen the chance of asthma. We've succeeded on the former, failed on the latter. I wonder, is asthma hereditary? HL's dad and aunt both had it as children, but, fortunately, soon outgrew it. Let's hope that's the case here, eh? So, here we go on a journey of learning a new aspect of our oldest, and picking up loads of medical information in the process. He is very good about telling us when he feels he might need another "puff", and does the inhaler/spacer combo like a champ. The irony about his asthma is that it has actually made life just a bit simpler in at least one way. Here is the story: All his life, he has been a real pill about taking medication (pun intended). It was ALWAYS an extreme battle to get him to take any medication. During one cold, we purchased four or five different medications to try to find the one that he could stomach. Only one was tolerable. While in Iowa, after playing hard on a farm, running til he was ragged with several cousins, and being exposed to many unique weeds; HL was hit with something akin to allergies- only with symptoms more indicative of a cold. He sent himself to bed and pretty much stayed there the remainder of the day- that's when you know a four year old really does NOT feel well! When he awoke the next morning he was wheezing, struggling to breathe, and even started to look a little blue. We took him to a local doctor's office where he was diagnosed with "asthmatic bronchitis". Essentially asthma, but it can't truly be diagnosed as that until it happens more often. He received two nebulizer treatments, which caused us to sit at the doctor's office for quite some time. While waiting, I picked up a colorful brochure that talked about antibiotics. The writers of this brochure portrayed germs as nasty, scary little monsters. The antibiotics were brightly colored "bombs" (for lack of a better word) that defeated the germs. HL took to it immediately. He was actually excited to get some medicine to kill all those germ-monsters in his body. And, he took his super-nasty tasting prescription with hardly a flinch! Where medications were concerned, HL was a new kid. Who knew? And now, I need to do some research on asthma. Please excuse me....