The way that asthma works is that you
inherit it from your parents, or you are the first person in your family to have it. Based on
statistics, African Americans and Hispanics suffer form asthma more than any other races, even though the
amount of asthma cases on white people is on the rise. One in five children currently suffers from
asthma. However, the disease on my family is reversed.
My son was born healthy, beautiful, and
strong and continued growing healthy. When he was four, we sold the house we lived in and had to move
into an apartment. The apartment was not completed and there was dust in some of the rooms. I now know that
the walls were made of material dangerous for the respiratory track and there were rooms that had no floors
yet.
After few weeks, I woke up in the early
morning hours to the sound of him crying. When I approached him, he was burning up and when I called the
hospital I was told to sit him on the tub filled with about 10 inches of cold water to bring the fever down. I
was also instructed to take him to the hospital after the fever had come down a bit. Hearing him scream in
pain as he sat in the water was heart breaking and I almost pulled him out. My mother stopped me from doing
so. The fever came down from 103 to 101.
I got him to the hospital and after
looking at him the emergency doctor diagnosed with severe bronchitis. He was given antibiotic and Tylenol. We
spend the night there. He was released the next day and he was doing fine. A few days later he was playing and
I heard whizzing. I didn't know what caused it but it worried me. He continued playing and soon thereafter he
came to me in desperation. He couldn't breath.
We went back to the hospital and we were
told he had asthma. I had no idea what asthma was, and thus, didn't know what to do. Trying times were ahead
of us. He was admitted to the hospital, placed on oxygen and was given breathing treatments for four full
days. At the fifth day he was taken off the oxygen and continue the breathing treatment for two more days.
Once again, he was released from the hospital.
He continued having asthma problems that
would have him, and us, up all night fighting it. He was placed on the inhalers and medication for his age
bracket. His pediatrician told me that he would outgrow the asthma as soon as he reached puberty. And after
years of despair and fights with the illness, he stopped having asthma attacks. His life has been completely
normal. He is now 22.
Nevertheless, in the research I have done
since I started having asthma, I have found that it is true the asthma goes away. Nevertheless, it comes back
(stronger) when the person is an adult. It can be late twenties or thirties, but it will come back. The only
way to combat it is to know what needs to be done to prevent it as much as possible from repeating again.
Choosing the right life style, diet, and exercise becomes very important in the life of the person with the
disease as it will eventually improve his/her overall health.
I hope he never has to go through it
again, and if he does, this time we are prepared to deal with it.
