What Does It Take?
What does it take to get over asthma? We’re doing the inhalers, taking our vitamins, trying to avoid flu and colds, which trigger it, and keeping the cats and dog out of the bedrooms (i know, i know, we should get rid of them, but the allergist sez Wacky Daughter isn’t allergic to them, at any rate, so it might not even help). We’ve torn up some of the carpets — and the latest carpet we ripped out lead us to the discovery of the Tilting House (see old blog entry for details), which we’re now realizing will cost us probably tens of thousands of dollars to repair.
because one thing leads to another.
because “as long as we’re at it” are the most dangerous words spoken when remodelling your home.
because we need to have more beams put in under Tilting House, which may crack the ugly stucco, or at least make a space between House and Stucco thus creating an Entryway for Milew and Crap. So, stucco must go. Once it’s down, we will find dry rot (we know we have some, just don’t know how much), thus necessitating repairing that, and then painting the whole house, and while we’re at it, why not knock a hole in the wall of the office and put in the french doors, leading to stairs to backyard, leading to patio (uh, we don’t actually have a patio out there, just grass, so we’ll have to build one) and… there ya go. Tens of thousands of dollars on this old lady of a house.
i love my house. We’ll just eat burritos all the time now, eh? And no more dinners out.
, 
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Well it sounds like your house will be very awesome once you complete all the projects! And it will pay off twice: you will have your dream house, and you will be increasing the value on your investment. There aren’t many investments where that is possible. I don’t have a whole lot of influence over my 401K, for instance. (Maybe I should learn VooDoo?!) Anyway, house ownership, like motherhood, is not for sissies!
As for the asthma, dang, if you’ve done all the basics (like using zipper covers on their mattresses and pillows and vacuum the mattress and the house constantly and minimize the stuffed animals) which I bet you have done ’cause you’re smart and you research this stuff and all, the only thing I can suggest is move out of Oregon, which I hope you don’t! (Wow was that the world’s longest run-on sentence or what?!) I have heard that outside play is better for kids than inside, surprisingly, because air quality inside houses is uber crappy from all the dust and mold and chemicals we use and off-gasing from plastics and synthetic fibers. So maybe have those cuties shake their booties outside on nice days. :)
March 24th, 2005 | #
We’ve been playing outside a lot lately and here I was thinking we’d be better off inside. The kids are all sneezy and wheezy from the pollen! So we’re out of luck inside, too. Hee hee. I know this house is crusty and musty — it, nothing, she’s a she.
She’ll be 100 in 2007. How crazy is that? I’ll get Wacky Daughter to come up with a name for her.
Yeah, we have the mattress covers and pillow covers. They tell you to wash everything in hot water once a week and dry it on high, but i don’t always. We vacuum some, but not enough. When I’m vacuuming twice a week it seems to make a big difference.
I need two more arms. I’m thinking if they were located directly behind the two I already have I’d be set. And maybe another 12 hours in the day?
March 24th, 2005 | #
Amen to more hands and more time! The fact is that no matter what we do as moms, there is always more we could be doing, and always something else we can feel guilty about. I think the Wacky Kids are very lucky to have you as a mom! You should feel really good about all that you do to keep them happy and healthy.
March 24th, 2005 | #
This is too probably late, and I’m sure you’ve already tried this . . . but have you tried a) taking WD outside in the rain? or b) getting the bathroom steamy and stay in there for 30 minutes or so? I’ve tried this with kid #2 (mostly the bathroom method) and it does seem to help with the gasping and chest tightness. Another thing that I’ve tried is filling the sink with hot water and having kid #2 breathe in the steam. That in conjunction with the inhalers is very helpful.
Oh, and then there is the albuterol inhaler . . . While in the steamy room give one puff every 5 minutes until the breathing is relaxed, or up to a maximum of 5 puffs. Your WD may get a little jittery but the breathing is a lot better. This the advice that was given to me by #2’s doctor when he was about 7 years old.
Another important thing is not to panic. It freaks the kid out making it even harder to breathe. Sometimes just holding them and rocking, singing or whatever calms them down, makes a huge difference. I had asthma as a child. The worst episode that I remember is when my parents totally panicked. It scared the heck out of me. I still remember my dad running to the bathroom in his tighty whities to get my medicine. I’ve never seen him that scared in my life, ever!
I know you’ve used a humidifier. That is a good thing to keep running in WD’s room until her asthma is cleared up.
Here is a little tip – I always worry about Legionaires Disease with humidifiers. To clean, place them in the shower then run a 2% bleach solution (1 teaspoon of bleach to 250ml of water)through the humidifier for 3 minutes. That will take care of any bacteria that could be growing on the device.
I’m sure that you know a lot about herbal remedies. Right now nettles are popping up. Harvest them (while donning gloves, of course) and steam them. They taste very much like spinach. Supposedly they are supposed to be amazing in treating allergies and they have the added bonus of being very high in nitrogen and other nutrients.
Good luck! Give WD a hug for me!
March 26th, 2005 | #
Oh, totally awesome and much-needed advice, thank you!!!!
March 27th, 2005 | #
Heh heh you said tighty whities. Heh heh. What an image! Thanks for the advice on cleaning the humidifier, by the by. I’ve always wondered about that one.
April 1st, 2005 | #