Asthma Blows. But Not Very Hard.

An email from Uncle Second Eldest, Father's Side, and my reply, concerning a trip to the ER.


What’s this stuff with little [Youngest] going to the hospital?? What kind of treatments do they give for asthma attacks? Since when is asthma a problem in this family anyway? Poor little fella. Eat more veggies. I sure hope all is well now.

Eldest had asthma too, but he outgrew it. It's not a our-side-of-the-family thing. We are made of sturdier stuff than that. But Mother's family is so riddled with allergies it's a wonder they can reproduce. Our nephew is allergic to everything. I think his diet is limited to, like, sheets of paper and water from the Euphrates.

Youngest is on a bunch of medicines, many of which, he was sad to learn, are not available as generics, so the money has to come out of his college fund. Why should we suffer? We're healthy!

The emergency room trip was a first for us - for asthma - though if you're gonna go to the emergency room at midnight, I recommend asthma. No waiting! Turns out, the whole breathing thing is sorta important. And a tip of the hat to Children's Hospital. That place is pretty incredible. I was moved to tears by the fact that they have cable TV in every exam room, though I may have been a little emotional, what with the sleep deprivation, and my kid not being able to breath and all.

There, they gave him, like, four huge doses of Prednisomething, which is the stuff that is in his inhaler already, but they loaded it into him, dose after dose after dose. It's sad to see him laying on a hospital bed with a mask on his face so he can breath, but he's used to those masks - which is sad too, I guess.

The stuff they had him breathing is a stimulant, so his heart was racing - which gave me another thing to worry about. I thought my phone was vibrating in his chest.

Then they gave him a dose of a steroid. Wait. The steroid is called Prednisomething. The other thing is. . . I dunno. At home we just call them puffs. Anyway, these days he takes two puffs on his inhaler every four hours, and the steroid twice a day.

That was Thursday / Friday. Yesterday he had to go to his doctor for an update, and she said things aren't much better. She put him on allergy meds as well. So now he's on Puffs, Prednisomething, and an allergy pill that starts with S. Are you writing this down?

The doctor made it clear to Mother that this is a pretty big deal, which is just what Mother needed to calm her down. I'm all like, relax! Its' just breathing! It's not like he can't do his chores.

The steroid should come with a sticker that says "Caution: Causes dickishness." The poor kid is a complete pain in the butt to live with when he is on it - he's belligerent, cranky, prone to tantrums. I have to keep reminding myself that it isn't him, it's the medicine. But that medicine is a real asshole.

The other bummer is that Youngest was going to leave on Friday to go to Disney World with his grandparents and Mother's brother's family. Yesterday the doctor said that if the trip were tomorrow, she'd say no way. As it is, the trip being Friday, she wants to see him again on Thursday. But Mother and I have decided it is a no-go. Disney World is built on a swamp. If the change of seasons in the Midwest did this to him, I'm not sending him down there. Especially not with those people, whose genetics are responsible for all of these problems in the first place.

So, there's that. Thanks for asking.