Life with kids with asthma!
Well, I was wondering if any moms would comment, I know the blog is new and getting up and going.
Some of the things I find in common with other moms is that asthma really controls all aspects of your life. You can plan a vacation, night out, family outing, etc - and all that can go out the window when one of the kids has an asthma attack or is sick with a respiratory infection.
I still have times that when I hear my kids cough, my heart starts pounding. I say, "Who's coughing?!" Sometimes the kids will say "Mom, chill! I just swallowed wrong!" Other times, I can see by the worried look on their face that something is seriously wrong.
Things aren't as bad now, but when they were little, I would have to carefully screen who came over to the house to play. A friend with a runny nose? Coughing? Sneezing? I would have to call the parent and say, "please come get your child." I would try to explain that a cold to a 'normal' person is just that, a cold. For someone with asthma, it often times can turn into pneumonia. In fact, almost all of my kid's 12 hospitalizations (for #2 Son and Kitty) were due to pneumonia.
Once we started having repeated hospitalizations, and my friends could see first hand how sick the kids were, then they 'got it'. Not everyone does. They would say, 'can junior come over and play? he has a runny nose?' I would thank them profusely for letting me know junior was sick and ask if we could postpone it a week until they were better.
My number one job as a parent is to protect my kids from all harm. You find out during that time who your friends really are. Some people support you, others think you are a hypochondriac. But they most likely haven't been pacing the floor night after night with a sick kid. Doing nebulizer treatments, watching for retraction, using the oxygen saturation monitor. It's a strange world.
Let's hope this winter goes a bit better. And for all you moms out there, your kids come first. A few people may get their feelings hurt, but better that then your kids ending up in the hospital because you didn't want to offend another parent.