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In What’s It Like To… New Zealanders from all walks of life share stories of health & wellbeing. Here, Shannon Skelton-Morris shares with Paulette Crowley what it’s like to parent a child who has severe asthma and is regularly admitted to hospital because of it. Today, Tuesday, May 6, is World Asthma Day.
The first time our daughter Charleigh had an asthma attack, she was about three or four years old. She started wheezing really badly and then, the vomiting started. We had no idea what was going on. Then she stopped talking and went completely blue. That’s when we called the ambulance.
In the hospital, they put her on oxygen and gave her medicine. The poor little thing, she was so terrified. It took a couple of hours for her breathing to stabilise.
Since then, I’ve lost count of the times that we’ve had to go into hospital. Sometimes we’d be there for a few hours and other times she’d have to stay there for a night or two. The first couple of attacks she had, it was really hard to figure out what was going on. We were always so worried.
Our GP had prescribed a puffer [inhaler] for Charleigh but we didn’t really understand how it worked. The advice was just kind of like, ‘Give her three puffs if she needs it’, type of thing. We were never given a preventer, and we didn’t know much about asthma.
After a couple of hospital admissions, we were connected with an asthma clinic. The asthma nurse was amazing and explained asthma completely to us, including how preventer medicine works. We saw little models of the lungs and breathing tubes and how they all work. It all started to make so much sense. She helped us come up with a plan to manage and cope with Charleigh’s asthma, which was pretty tricky because she was so young.
Getting educated about asthma was a game changer for us. Once we could wrap our heads around it, then we could keep it under control. It’s so scary not knowing what’s going on.
After that, Charleigh was still having flare-ups but they weren’t happening as often as they were.
But though the attacks were happening less, they were still really severe. When she was about nine years old, she got a cold when we were away in Tauranga. She ended up in the intensive care unit there for about a week. They were on the verge of flying her up to Starship Children’s Hospital but managed to get things under control. That was a pretty horrific week.
Even though Charleigh has severe asthma, it doesn’t hold her back. She’s really physically active and plays a lot of sports. She’s done running, athletics, jujitsu and netball. She’s also a singer and dancer, doing jazz and ballet. She recently competed at a national level for hip hop.
Being vigilant about taking her preventer medication is really important and Charleigh takes it very seriously because she’s terrified of getting really sick again. She has a good routine with it, she always makes sure she takes her puffer when she cleans her teeth.
It helps too that we have a dry home – it’s modern, warm and well-insulated. Living in a damp, mouldy home is really bad for kids with asthma. They often end up going to hospital, get treated and then have to go back to the damp home, which makes the asthma worse. We’re very fortunate to have living conditions like we do, not everyone is that lucky.
Even though we do everything we can to prevent more asthma attacks, they still happen. For Charleigh, they’re mainly triggered through catching a virus, like a cold, and usually start at night. The minute I hear her coughing, which is one of the first signs of asthma, I go, ‘Oh, god, here we go.’
At that stage, her asthma management plan kicks in and she starts taking her blue puffer. She has six puffs every few hours but can take it more if needed. But if we’re having to lessen the timeframe too much, then we know we’re in trouble.
I know straight away when things have gotten to that critical stage. Charleigh will stop talking and I can see what looks like a little tug in the bottom of her neck. That’s a sign she’s really struggling with her breathing, and she needs to take another steroid-type of medicine. We also need to let our doctor know what’s going on, or ring an ambulance.
We’ve had a lot of support from the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation during the years. They do so much for the asthma community through the research studies that they do, and with the resources they provide. You also get to hear about other people’s experiences with asthma and learn how they cope. Those stories have really resonated with us and made us feel like we’re not alone.
Asthma often doesn’t happen in isolation – it can go hand in hand with the conditions, which was the case for Charleigh. As a baby and small child she was covered from head to toe with severe eczema. She also has a potentially life-threatening peanut allergy. She’s been admitted to hospital a few times for anaphylaxis. These days she only has minor eczema flare ups and always carries an Epipen in case she has another reaction to peanuts.
Touch wood, she hasn’t had a major asthma episode for about two years now. Kids can grow out of it, and we’re hoping that happens for Charleigh.
In New Zealand, around 1 million people are affected by asthma and respiratory disease. Of those, a third are children. Respiratory conditions lead to 1 in 11 hospital admissions – around 82,000 each year – and are our third leading cause of death. This World Asthma Day, the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation NZ is proud to host its first Blue Shirt Day, raising awareness and support for the 1 in 8 New Zealanders living with asthma. For more, see www.blueshirtday.org.nz or www.asthmafoundation.org.nz
