I looked at the calendar the other day and realized AG and the Steadfast Sidekick have only a month of summer break left before they head back to school.
AWESOME.
I love my girls, you know I do, and they’re fun people to hang out with, but what I don’t love? The summer schedule of a mom who works from home with two kids too old to take naps or go to bed early and too young to drive. Not that I’m in any hurry for them to drive, mind you. I’m still getting used to navigating snowy roads in winter myself, and I think teaching them the rudiments of cars + ice will probably have to fall to Mr. Asthma Mom.
Point being, whenever people say to me, “Wow! You work from home? LU-CKY,” then I’m all, “If you say so.”
Because at the same time that I don’t make enough money to pay for full-time summer camp, I can’t afford not to work. End result: my juggling various projects and the finite number of hours I have to finish them in with my daughters’ trips to friends’ houses, pool time, practices and games, and play dates over here. And you know who always ends up last on the list in these types of situations, don’t you?
I’m actually not complaining even though it’s starting to sound that way, but I can’t lie – my heart leapt a little when I discovered how close the first day of school looms.
This year, I have a check-up and a sixth-grade (sixth? SIXTH? How did that happen?) immunization scheduled for AG, and I have a decision to make about her medication.
The Flovent Question
Last year in consultation with the pediatrician, I moved AG up to a higher concentration of her maintenance Flovent inhaler right before school started in August. H1N1 had been circulating in various parts of the world since that previous spring, and we didn’t know what to expect during cold and flu season.
Now, after a full fall and winter on the higher concentration followed by her usual summer off the steroid inhaler, it’s pretty clear to me that, while the lower dose did control my kid’s asthma, the higher dose seems to maintain it better. Yes, she experienced one of the sickest winters in her life so far – we all did, probably because of our cross-country move and the exposure to new germs – but at the same time, I think the severity and length of her recovery from each bug (except the H1N1) went down.
Plus, AG experienced fewer instances of random flaring associated with weather changes or airborne irritants, so I’m guessing that on the lower dose, she probably lived and breathed with more inflammation than we realized.
As I finish this post and I’m about to click “Publish,” it occurs to me that I’ve already made my decision, but I want to highlight an important parenting concept here: asthma can change over the years, and it often does. Every so often, it’s a very good idea to stop and evaluate your child’s health, even in lieu of outright problems.
Ask yourself:
Are my kid’s symptoms under control?
Could they be under better control?
Have any triggers disappeared?
Have new ones cropped up?
Do the current treatments work?
Are my kid’s peak flow numbers up to date?
I’m on the other side of this right now… my AG’s been stable since about a month after her surgery in December… our asthma doc wants to try to back off the meds a bit (she is on the 110mcg – 2pXday). I am very hesitant, though, because I am so afraid she’ll regress back to where we used to be & I refuse to let her go through bouts of pneumonia and coughing insessantly again if I can help it at all. I am a bit envious, though, that she gets breaks… In any case, follow your mommy instincts… they’re (almost) always right.
Yeah, I keep coming back to how surprised I was over her good adaptation to a “true” winter, and I think the higher Flovent probably helped. At any rate, I am very grateful that she gets that summer break (benefits of non-allergic asthma, I suppose), and it makes me feel easier about bumping it up.
Does your doctor want your daughter to try fewer puffs, the lower concentration, or both?
the med question….it’s a tough one, isn’t it. I struggle with it daily. I KNOW that she needs them (I’m ignoring your “control” questions…we’ll get there…eventually) but she’s inhaling so much “stuff” into her lungs.
Kerri and I were talking about ME the other day, and she asked how often I was having symptoms, and it occurred to me that I’m SOB most of the time…it’s amazing what you can live with, and what begins to feel normal…so of course you might not have noticed a certain level of inflammation (both of you) especially if it was significantly less than the level it is without ANY meds…KWIM You now know that the higher dosage works better, so go with it.
And I totally hear you on loving your children, but also looking forward to school. I’m not there yet…my kids get 2 weeks of day camp every summer, and due to the generosity of my church, Abby was able to go to resident camp for a week…so, I’m not ready for them to go back yet…talk to me in about a week.
And now we’re back to that question of her “normal” versus, say, mine. It’s so hard to tell these things because she’s basically always lived with asthma and, as you & Kerri were saying, what symptoms you guys live with are such a daily thing. Mostly, I think I wrote this post to hold myself accountable. I don’t wanna keep her on the higher dose! I have a serious mental block b/c it feels like a step backwards at this age.
BUT I know it’s the right thing to do & if I write it here, publicly, it forces me past the block.
aw, Amy…I get it, you know I do. Remember, though, they have the different dosages for a reason. It might not even be that she’s been dealing with a level of inflammation, but that her body has grown, and her need for medication has changed. Not a step back…a lateral move that goes along with her growing. (do inhaled medications work like that? I know that periodically, we need to re-evaluate Abby’s oral meds, because as she grows, she needs more of the SSRI in her system)
You are hereby being held accountable.
I’d second what Sara says it can definitely be a growth factor. It’s amazing what changing from a dose meant for an 8 year old to one meant for you who weighs significantly more than you did 10 years ago will do for allergy control.
I’d assume the same thing happens for inhaled meds I mean your lungs grow just like the rest of you does. And it’s definitely a lot better to have been dosed correctly than just enough to skate by(why it never got thought of that I’d shot up 6 inches and 40-50 lbs since I started allegra is one of life’s great miserable mysteries).
Good points re: growth. Dunno why that never occurred to me–thanks!
She mentioned eventually trying to go to the lower dosage (the 44mcg flovent).