my b and her asthma

may is national asthma awareness month...

and since b is a silent asthmatic, which is scary...and sometimes hard for all of us. what that means is that brooke almost never wheezes out loud, which is often an outward sign that something is going on.

brooke's birthmom is an asthmatic and asthma tends to run in families, so the doctors were on the look out early on with her. and her asthma reared it's head pretty early on...

brooke had her first asthma episode at about 12 months when she just turned blue out of no where in the car one day. i turned around, she wasn't talking or playing and her feet and hands and lips were blue. she had no other symptoms...other than being quiet and still, which is def not brooke.

since i had my inhaler, i tossed some albuterol in her face and made her scream to suck it in...in about 5 minutes, the color came back and she was back to normal. in the years since, we have learned that when brooke "gets tired" and lays down in the middle of normal activity, when she's been just fine and when she complains of a "tummy ache"...that is an asthma attack.

she had a silent attack at paige's softball game on monday...she laid down on the bleachers in the middle o playing with her friends and started to go to sleep. {big alarm...not brooke}
she said she didn't feel good. i asked what hurt, she said her stomach...
bells and alarms going off!!!

inhaler and air chamber in hand we did her puffs of meds and in about 15 minutes, she was back to normal. there are some things that do trigger asthma is most people, and you should go HERE to read them...

people ask all the time what asthma is...so here's a picture...and it really does the best in describing it. {if you have never had asthma, it's terrifying. you struggle for each breath and you don't feel like you will get just one more breath.}

here's some facts...bc ignorance is bliss, but knowledge is def power, and in this case, could save your life!!

according to the cdc and prevention:

• About 23 million people, including 6.8 million children, have asthma.
• Asthma is one of the most common serious chronic diseases of childhood.
• Asthma is the third-ranking cause of hospitalization among children under 15.
• An average of one out of every 10 school-aged children has asthma.

the EPA has a great site up with tons of info. you want more...go HERE and you'll get tons of knowledge.

and if you want to be involved in the national asthma awareness month events, go HERE and find out if there are any in your area, or set up an event...it tells you how!