Essential Estrogen

A press release went out yesterday from the Iowa Department of Public Health "celebrating" May as "Asthma Awareness Month."

I commend both Gov. Chet Culver and Lt. Gov. Patty Judge for their interest in this chronic disease and their quest to educate the Iowa public about it. While reading the press release, however, I noticed something odd. Viruses, often a trigger for asthma in both children and adults, was not on the list.

The first time my daughter had an attack, I had absolutely no idea what was going on. She had a bit of a runny nose the night before, but I didn't think much of it. The next morning, she began to cough a little and was obviously not feeling up to par. After a few sips of juice, she stretched out on the couch and fell asleep again. I woke her up an hour or so later because she had developed a fever and I wanted to give her some medicine for it.

Within a half an hour, she was having a very difficult time breathing. I called our pediatrician and headed to her office. The drive is maybe 20 minutes in heavy traffic, but it felt like a five hours. My sweet baby sounded like Darth Vader after running the Boston Marathon (or at least how I imagine he'd sound). I could see the skin being pulled in around certain parts of her neck when she would try to breathe. There were large dark spots under her eyes and her complextion was thin and pale.

As I carried her into the doctor's office, the nurse picked up the phone and called an ambulance. My daughter's lips and fingertips had a light blue look to them.

To my credit, I do very well under pressure -- especially when I think my children need me. I'm solid and tough for as long as I'm the one in charge during a crisis. Once I'm relieved of duty, however, I crumble like a day-old donut.

That's exactly what happened in the ambulance on the way to the emergency room... once my daughter passed out and the paramedics began working on her, my composure was shot.

It was late the next day before I began to relax again because it took that long to see improvement. Little by little, she began to breathe easier and her color returned. (It was days later before the dark circles disappeared.)

That was the first time she had an asthma attack, although no one was willing to actually call it that. The entire event took less than 16 hours. The obvious downhill failing of her breathing happened in under three hours. Still, it was considered like a fluke and we went back to life as usual. I don't remember how long it was until the next virus came along and the next asthma attack followed.

Soon we became the proud owners of a nebulizer and carried it everywhere. She had a standing prescription for oral steroids at the pharmacy.I began to learn how to recognize and run first defense against the attacks. Although that winter, she was admitted to the hospital six times. (At one point that winter I had one child in a half-body cast, another in the pediatrics unit and the third being prepped for out-patient surgery.)

Today -- and I write that literally meaning "these past 24 hours" -- we seem to have the asthma under control. Twice during the winter she developed a cold and was able to fight it and the asthma off without using oral steriods (although the nebulizer is still her friend). She is getting to the age when we'll soon know if this is something which will improve as she grows.