I’m Amy Anaruk, and I don’t have asthma.
My older daughter, AG, does. Her sister, the Steadfast Sidekick, doesn’t.
About This Site
Asthma Mom is a health blog, a mommy blog, a travel blog, and a Denver blog.
I write about raising my asthma kid and her robustly-lunged little sister.
I make up terms like “robustly-lunged.”
I share stories and photos of our travels in Colorado, along the Front Range where we live and beyond.
I give tips on kids’ health, asthma maintenance and control, asthma travel, and higher altitude hiking with respiratory challenges.
I marvel, frequently, at the huge differences between life in humid, coastal Florida and life a mile high.
I link to interesting articles, media, and research on all these subjects and more.
You get the idea.
AG writes a semi-regular column called Notes From an Asthma Kid.
About Me
I’m a freelance writer and a professional blogger with a bachelor’s degree in English.
All my life, I lived on one coast or another and mostly in Florida. In February 2009, our family headed inland to the Denver area.
At 5,280 feet, where the Great Plains end and the Rocky Mountains begin, the wind blows harder. The winter lasts longer here; the air feels drier; and the views loom larger and wider.
It’s wonderful.
Literally, this place is full of wonder, and I feel lucky everyday that I get to live here.
About My Daughter
AG is 11 years-old and has moderate persistent asthma, meaning that without her maintenance plan, she would probably flare every day. Luckily, her airways respond very well to inhaled corticosteroids and her asthma maintenance plan.
She spent the first half of her life flaring severely and frequenting the ER, partly because her asthma isn’t the mildest case ever, and partly because we made a lot of stupid mistakes. AG also lives with recurring gastritis. This kid of mine faces her inconsistent breathing and stomach issues with more grace and maturity than I probably would.
Her sister’s pretty awesome, too.
Raising a child with a chronic breathing problem terrified me during the early, uncontrolled years and online health communities probably saved me from commitment in a mental health facility somewhere. The knowledge other asthma parents gave me and the advocacy I started as a result certainly saved my daughter from several more years of uncontrolled flaring.
Along the way, she and I have accepted that she will probably always have to monitor her lung health, that she may always get sick more often than her sister does, and that she can climb mountains, play a fierce game of volleyball, and go snowboarding anyway.
We’re okay with that.
(Usually.)
