My poor Austen has had Asthma since he was a baby. Usually(let me emphasize, usually) just has problems when he has a cold, which thank goodness he rarely gets sick at all. He has a cold with some fever now, which I just figured out he has some fever because he went and crawled into my bed. Going back to bed is something that he never does...NEVER. This child never even napped when he was little. So I checked his temp, sure enough, 101.3. *sigh* When he coughs, he sounds awful. He even woke up about 4am this morning, went into the bathroom, shut the door, and ran the hot shower for awhile to steam it up, all on his own. I asked him why he didn't wake me up, he told me, "you were sleeping". Wow, that struck a cord with me, about just how much he's growing up, but that's another different topic entirely. The hot steam helps with the dry cough, and helps soothe it, and helps him breathe better. This is something that we learned from a doctor years ago and have done with him since he was a baby, and he does it on his own now.
I feel blessed and thank God in this day and age that we have medicines, inhalers, and machines to help. It just breaks my heart to see kids have problems breathing. Breathing clearly.....is something that those of us without asthma take for granted every day. My husband also has it, and so does my nephew and sister-in law. My brother had it as a child also. Back then, we didn't the inhalers and machines. I remember the scary times when he would wake up wheezing, and we whisked him into the car for the 30 minute drive to town where they would give him medicine in one of those "tents". I remember how he hated those things. I don't blame him. Thank God that he outgrew it.
Why is asthma so rampant? Is it the pollution (including a numbers of things), pollen, chemicals we use? It can be one or a combination of different things. Even physical exhertion, or as in our case, sickness can set it off. Whatever the trigger is, it sucks......just plan and simply sucks. There are a few things that I would like to call "Asthma" right now, but it's not appropriate for Facebook, there are children on here. We here talk about how the occurrences of asthma, especially in children, is rising. There are some of those triggers that we can control, but I am not going to get political, just making a point that we can control some of them. Just some food for thought.
Thanks for letting me vent and get this out in the open. I will crawl down off my soap box now, and I'm going to go check on Austen. Peace, and I wish you and family good health and clear breathing.
