The girls and I wore our World Asthma Day shirts yesterday...even though I worked, and I'm not supposed to wear Tshirts, I did anyway. Abby told all her friends about why she was wearing her shirt. She found out that several of her friends have asthma. Mariella also told everyone...and thought it was hilarious that they all said "Really, I didn't know there was such THING as World Asthma Day."
It's amazing how many people don't realize that people "still" DIE from Asthma. Of course, it's "ONLY" about 3600 people a year...but again, I'm unsure why ANY deaths from a largely controllable disease is acceptable. I'm not sure why it's acceptable that 10.2 million children suffer from from a disease that should barely be a blip on their reality. Why it's acceptable that over 8 million dollars are spent every year on treating asthma, which is LESS than the 10 million dollars of indirect costs of absenteeism, from work and school.
The incidence of asthma in children is rising steadily. I'm not sure if it's because it's better diagnosing is taking place, or if there are just more children that are being afflicted. In my personal experience, it took well over 7 years to be diagnosed with asthma, though I was treated for "chronic bronchitis" for all of those years. Finally, a doctor who was knowledgeable in what was then called "atypical coughing asthma" diagnosed me. It is now more well known that asthma isn't just wheezing. There are other symptoms to be looked at...things like coughing, shortness of breath, or pain of a tight feeling in the chest. As more doctors become aware of these other symptoms, more children are being diagnosed.
I'll admit, I have a personal stake in more research, in better treatments for asthma. My 6 year old daughter takes 3 different inhalers every day. Each inhaler is prescribed in adult dosages, because the appropriate pediatric treatments have proven not to work for her. At least one of the medications has a warning regarding increased risk of asthma related death. (of course, uncontrolled asthma also carries a risk of asthma related death.) There needs to be more research in the connection between gastro symptoms and asthma symptoms.
Finally...the next person that I hear say..."well, it's JUST asthma..." I'm going to kick them. I heard it the other day, when I was giving Mariella a rescue puff, because she was blue. A person who I don't know said..."well, at least it's just asthma...once you give her that inhaler, she'll be fine." Unfortunately, we were at a church camp open house, and really, they kind of frown on kicking strangers.
1 comment:
Your last sentence has me laughing out loud.
On a more serious note, I can't understand, either, why asthma deaths have largely fallen out of the public consciousness...or the seriousness of living with asthma and the difficulty in getting it under control, for that matter.
I'm so glad you started blogging.... I feel like the more of us there are, the more we will force people to change their asthma perceptions!
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