Just call me professor.
I'm guest lecturing about asthma in a class at a local university. I have all the supplies packed, nebulizer, peak flow meters, inhalers, discs, emergency medicine for the nebulizer, Epi pen, etc.
I was looking up the latest stats, it's a little surprising what they are.
According to Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America,
Every day in the US:
* 40,000 people miss school or work due to asthma
* 30,000 people have an asthma attack
* 5,000 people visit the emergency room due to asthma
* 1,000 people are admitted to the hospital due to asthma
* 11 people die from asthma
I never want to fall in that last statistic. However, we've been in the first four statistics numerous times.
It will be interesting to see what this class thinks about asthma, if I can just get them to understand what happens physically during an asthma attack, what can trigger it, how to treat it, and how serious it can be, I'll think it's well worth my time. I think people really down play asthma "just give them their inhaler and they'll be fine". But we all know it's not that easy.
I'm bringing 11 of the boy's plastic army guys for my visual aid. I'm going to set them up at the beginning of the lecture, them knock them over at the end to symbolize how many people will die today from an asthma attack. It's a sobering thought.
So, off I go to guest lecture. Maybe they'll bring an apple for the teacher.