Asthma is Not My Friend

As I type this I am listening to my 8 year old, Cameron, dealing with the after affects of a late night asthma attack.  He is by me on the couch, drained, coughing and breathing heavy.  I am used to this sound.  He is the second of our four children to have astma and in all honesty, although he sounds terrible, he has never had it as bad as Cal did. 

I wasn't expecting to have children with asthma.  No one in my family had asthma.  It was completely off my radar.  Thus, when Cal (at age 2) came running in the house screaming that bees were stinging his chest I ripped his shirt off expecting to find welts.  No welts or stingers were to be found, just a toddler struggling to catch his breath.  Because Cal coughs instead of wheezing when he has an attack it was hard to get a correct diagnosis at first.  After lung surgery and several trips to Riley's it was confirmed that he did have asthma and everything just seemed to make sense.  He was our fussiest baby, had a lot of difficulty sleeping and would spend one week out of every month a very sick little boy.  Now at least we knew why.

We went back and forth to Riley's Children Hospital, tried numerous steriods, inhalers and medications, missed many days of school, and had teachers/nurses calling in panic because he couldn't breath.  I spent numerous nights sleeping with my hand on Cal's chest to make sure it was rising and falling and made many ER trips. Besides all of the medical attention, it took a lot of prayers and trust in God to get our family through the "asthma phase of Cal's life." 

If it wasn't for our experience with his brother I would be panic strickened everytime Cameron woke me up with a coughing spell.  I am more confident and comfortable dealing with it.  I am very thankful that Cameron's asthma does not seem to be as severe as Cal's was.  I hope that he outgrows it much as his brother has. 

No, asthma is not my friend, but I have learned to accept it in our family.  In truth it has made the boys stronger (Cal's only had one attack in the past year.  It was during a hard fought, energy packed freshmen basketball game.  True to his inner determination he never told his coached and just played through it.)  Asthma has also made the rest of the family more empathetic to those with health problems or who have had an adversity to overcome.