May 5, 2025 • 49 mins
Andrea's inspiring journey from interior design to public health is a testament to the power of personal experience in shaping professional paths. Prompted by her son's asthma diagnosis and the challenges they faced navigating the healthcare system, Andrea became a Certified Health Education Specialist and Asthma Educator. Through her story, we uncover the emotional resilience required to manage a child's chronic illness and the unwavering trust in parental instincts that guided her towards advocating for better asthma education and specialized care.
Medicine shaming and the prevalence of misleading health advice online pose significant challenges for those managing chronic conditions like asthma. Andrea shares her candid experiences with unsolicited advice and the pitfalls of miracle cures, highlighting the critical importance of consulting healthcare professionals and relying on accurate, reputable sources. We also reflect on outdated misconceptions about asthma and the necessity for precise diagnoses and treatments, especially considering the pervasive myths from the 1980s that continue to influence public perception.
Creating an asthma-friendly home is crucial for effective management of the condition, and Andrea offers practical strategies to achieve this. From reducing allergens with specific cleaning techniques to ensuring family members are prepared for medical emergencies, she provides actionable tips to maintain a healthy environment. We also delve into the importance of balancing asthma management with quality of life, discussing how to enjoy simple pleasures while minimizing health risks. Andrea's insights empower listeners to make informed decisions that positively impact their lives and those of their loved ones.
A few reasons you should care about asthma:
- Asthma is the most common chronic disease among children
- Asthma is the #1 cause of missed school days (and kids with asthma grow up to be adults with asthma.)
- 10 people in the U.S. die each day from asthma
I love the famous statistics quote by Paul Badeur, "Statistics are human beings with the tears wiped off."
- American Lung Association https://www.lung.org/
- Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America https://aafa.org/
- Allergy & Asthma Networ
Are you living with a chronic illness and want to make your voice heard? Rare Patient Voice connects patients and caregivers with research opportunities—so you can share your experiences and get paid for your time! Your insights help drive real change in healthcare.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to Merle's Little Needs Sisters.
We are thrilled to have Andrea,a Certified Health Education
Specialist and Certified AsthmaEducator.
Her dedication to asthmaeducation spans local, state,
national and global levels,including leading programs like
award-winning Asthma Home VisitProgram.
Andrea, welcome to the pod.
(00:21):
How you doing.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Thank you y'all, I'm doing well.
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
We did a little introduction and you know the
stuffy bio, the stuffy bio.
Can you tell us a little bitabout yourself?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
My original degree was in interior design, which I
still love because you know Igot to keep my skills sharp.
But love, love, love what I doin public health.
I'll help anytime, anybodyanywhere, anytime.
On vacation, I help somebody inHawaii.
Love to travel, love Paris it'smy favorite city.
I love Hawaii.
We just rescued two gingerkittens and I know people say
(00:54):
you cannot have pets if you haveallergies and asthma.
Well, we've all had allergyshots and I'm never going to be
a grandma, so the two littlekittens are going to be my
grandbabies and we love them andwe just keep a really clean
house, stay up on the allergymedicines and all that.
But yeah, I'm a sucker forkittens, definitely.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Do you mind sharing a bit of background of how your
son's asthma diagnosis inspiredyou to shift from interior
design to public health andasthma education?
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Always an interesting story and people want to know
what's going on behind thescenes.
When my middle son was five, Inoticed that he was always a lot
sicker than his older brotherand he would get sick.
It would last a lot longer thatmother's intuition.
You know your kids and you knowsomething's wrong.
And this is way back in Januaryof 2000.
So 25 years ago I had my littlearticle from Parents Magazine
(01:46):
and I took that to thepediatrician because that's what
we used back then, because theinternet wasn't really a big
thing back then, a lot of peopledidn't have computers.
I said to my doctor I'm reallyconcerned.
This child has asthma and heshows all the symptoms here.
Something is off with this kid.
He said oh no, it's a virus.
About two weeks later I tookhim back to the doctor.
He was sick again.
(02:06):
He looked terrible, his skinwas pale, he had dark circles
under his eyes, he was reallylethargic and that mom instinct,
like something's wrong with mychild, took him to the
pediatrician and all of a sudden, instead of saying, oh honey,
it's just a virus, but you know,I'm a doctor, the room swarms
with people and I've got peopleputting an oxygen monitor on his
finger.
I'm setting up an albuterolbreathing treatment.
(02:29):
The doctor doesn't come in alot.
All sorts of other people werethere and I thought what's going
on?
He said, well, he's having ahard time breathing.
I'm like, yeah, that's why Ibrought him in.
I knew something was wrong.
They said we need you to drivearound to the other side of the
building and we're going toadmit him to the hospital.
I was eight months pregnant.
I had a really horriblepregnancy, got some heart issues
(02:49):
.
I was supposed to be home onstrict bed rest.
That meant getting up to go tothe bathroom, getting up to
shower.
That was it.
Couldn't find anybody to takeme down to the pediatrician with
him.
Now I've got to drive around tothe hospital.
I call my husband and say heworks an hour away.
Something's going on.
They're admitting our son to thehospital and he's in a panic.
He borrows a car.
I get to the hospital andthey're like honey, do you need
(03:10):
a wheelchair?
I'm like I've got to take himup to Peds.
I get up to Peds and therespiratory therapist there and
I'm like what is going on here?
He said, oh, we're admittinghim for asthma.
I said uh-uh, no, I just talkedto the pediatrician and he said
he does not have asthma.
And he said oh, he has asthma,right, that's why we are
admitting him.
So deer in the headlights look.
Didn't know anything aboutasthma, didn't know terminology,
(03:32):
didn't know how the diseaseworked, didn't know how it
worked on different people.
Just, absolutely in a panic, Iam going into preterm labor at
this point.
It was a really hard situationand, bless his heart, the
(03:57):
respiratory therapist went overto his computer, printed off 30
pages worth of information fromthe Internet, came and flopped
it down on my son's bedsidetable, turned on his heel and
then just called over shoulder,call me if you get a diagnosis.
You should get the information.
This is back before smartphones.
It wasn't like I could justpull up my phone and sit on the
corner of his bed and Googlewhat is asthma, what are the
signs and symptoms?
None of that was available.
It was a really, really rockyroad.
I dove into the world of asthma.
I started reading those 30pages worth of medical articles.
(04:20):
I was circling, I washighlighting Respiratory
therapists would come in.
I said what does this mean?
What's this work?
Then we were introduced to anasthma specialist.
The thing that can be reallyhard is that when my son was
discharged the first time, thepediatrician said oh, he doesn't
need to be on all thoseinhalers.
You know there's steroids inthem.
(04:43):
That kind of stuff is good forthe body.
You need to stop all those,which I did what the doctor told
me.
My son was back in the hospitalfour weeks later with pneumonia
again.
So this time we decided to gowith the asthma specialist and
go with someone who knew what itwas.
This is his specialty.
That can be a little bit hardsometimes.
When my son was first diagnosed,I had some hopeful family
members that were intohomeopathic medicine.
They said you know what?
We've got these drops.
(05:04):
Just put them under his tongueand not fix anything.
Starts having problems.
Just use that.
This is an older family member.
She had six kids.
I trusted her.
My son ended up in the ICU.
I said we're done here.
I'm going to listen to thespecialists and make sure that
I'm following all the medicalprofessionals.
I'm not going to mess withessential oils or anything else.
I've got to go with what worksand what the guidelines are.
(05:28):
Through myself in the world ofasthma, attending webinars,
listening to anything I couldread, anything I could.
Then, when I would learn thingsfrom the doctor.
I'd be sharing this withfriends whose kids had asthma.
A friend that worked in publichealth said you know, you are
really good at this working withfamilies and explaining things
how they could understand.
You should get a degree inpublic health.
I said what is that?
(05:48):
I found a program at the localuniversity and she said you
should go back and get a degreein this and you can get paid for
what you're good at and helpingfamilies.
So I did.
It had been 19 years since I'dbeen in college.
My oldest son was startingcollege the same time I was
going to college.
I was terrified.
I had gone to college.
We used typewriters and cardcatalogs and hear all these kids
(06:09):
on their laptops whizzingaround.
It was terrifying.
But made it through, earned mysecondary bachelor's degree, had
to take core classes, graduatedwith honors and then became
certified nationally in publichealth and asthma.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
You said it was the year 2000.
If we wanted to try to find outanything, get on AOL and watch
that dial-up happen.
It's going to take forever toget into a chat room to talk to
other parents.
Right, I know that for me itwas call my mom, my grandma, my
aunt.
Have you had to deal with this?
What can you tell me?
Right, with everything, did youfeel at one point you're ready
(06:43):
to fire your pediatrician?
Speaker 2 (06:46):
I did.
We stopped seeing him forasthma.
We'd only go to the asthmaspecialist.
I would take my kids back.
The kids had strep throat orthey broke their arm or
something we would go to.
The pediatrician made a firmboundary that the family member
was not to talk to me about anyhomeopathic treatments at that
point.
And they kept trying to do thatwith some of my heart problems
and I said this is none of yourbusiness.
(07:08):
I'm going to go to the doctorsthat are board certified and
specialize in this.
I'm going to make sure theinformation I get is accurate,
because that almost cost my sonhis life, that is a valid point.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
It's hard to want to weed out and listen on things
and not others.
People are overstepping whenthey think they're trying to be
helpful.
I see so many nodding heads.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
I'm sure there's extreme situations that you have
all dealt with.
Listen, listen, it's Allie.
Hello, I get a lot of DMs onInstagram about people who did
not start their medicationbecause of what we call in the
studio world like medicineshamers, and we've all almost
all of us have dealt with it.
It's really hard, especiallywhen we're getting diagnosed.
I put off medication because Ihad medicine chambers in my life
(07:45):
telling me that it's going tothe first group I was in.
The woman said it's going tokill me the medication because
it killed her brother.
Like I've had a lot of peoplelike say, don't take that and I
got joint damage because of it.
So I see a lot of people notstart their medication because
of the fear and I'm like, pleasejust talk to your doctor, don't
listen to random.
I mean, yes, we want to listento random strangers on the
(08:06):
internet for, like, nice help,like you know, like all of us,
what we're doing here, but whenyou, when you really need
medical advice, you need to goto a doctor and voice your fears
and not just listen to medicineshamers tell you don't do this
because it's going to wreakhavoc on your body.
It's like if it were happeningto you, I think you would have a
different perspective, becausethat medicine shamer who had me
like not want to take my medsand ended up happening to a
(08:28):
family member of theirs and theywere like, oh, they need
medication.
It's like, yeah, when ithappens to someone close in your
family, you'll understand.
But yeah, so I'm verypassionate about this.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
So my thing in the inboxes is that this tea will
cure cancer, pregnancy, genitalwarts.
I was like how do you curepregnancy?
I always get stuck on that one.
But how do you cure pregnancy?
Then you want me to think thatthis is about to take away all
of my autoimmune disease.
You sprinkled in pregnancy withtesticular cancer.
This is a miracle tea.
(08:58):
It's a no, you don't need thosemedications, but I do.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
I don't want to hear about herbs.
I don't want to hear about thejuices, the latest tropical
juice that's going to cure me.
And so that's why I,specifically on my socials of my
life as an asthma mom, I'llshare stories about what we went
through.
I make sure that there'saccurate information there.
I will link to Mayo Clinic orone of the other allergy and
American Lung Association orsome of the national, because I
(09:25):
want to make sure that they knowthat the information I'm giving
is accurate, because it can bereally dangerous.
And why shame somebody?
You are not in their shoes andyou do not know what they're
going through.
And I've had so many people sayI just I don't have to take
medicine for the rest of my life.
I'm like, why not?
I intend to live a long lifeand annoy my kids.
They're all adults now.
I want to annoy them forseveral more decades.
(09:47):
I want to live a long life andif this can help me do that, I'm
going to take it, yeah, andlet's be realistic.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
We owe those kids, yeah, everything that they've
put us through in our lives.
We owe them to be around.
Have you ever seen those videosof the parents acting like the
child going through their house?
Yes, messing up all the dishes?
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Yeah, I want to be that parent Flipping the lights
on, leaving the cupboard doorsopen, setting cream on the
counter, letting it melt allthat, yeah, yeah.
If we made it through teenageyears with our kids, we deserve
a medal.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Andrea.
I was diagnosed with asthma inthe 80s.
Okay, I had the pediatricianthat had never asthma, because
it was so apparently uncommon inthe 80s.
What are some of themisconceptions about asthma that
you encounter in your field?
Because when I was getting mydiagnosis they had my mom
thinking I had cystic fibrosisand they were holding me over
beds and beating my back andchest and doing all of the stuff
(10:40):
.
All I really needed to do wasget the mucus out my lungs
because I had asthma and a goodold nebulizer treatment would
have cleared that up.
But you know.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
A lot of people say oh, it's just asthma, just use
your inhaler.
That's not good enoughsometimes.
Sometimes you need a nebulizer.
Sometimes people need a dailycontroller anti-inflammatory,
which is what I need, and then Ialso need to have a dual
inhaler.
That also is the long actingversion of albuterol.
So there's different types ofasthma.
It depends really on your body.
(11:09):
Just like all of us lookdifferent on the screen, asthma
can look different for everybody.
It depends on what type ofphenotype and endotype of asthma
you have.
Some of the biggest myths arethat asthma is just a childhood
disease.
Well, guess what?
They grow up to be adults andthey still have asthma.
And asthma does not go away.
And I said well, I'm a little60.
How old do you have to bebefore you outgrow asthma?
(11:30):
And that's a really common one.
That people say is that peopleoutgrow it.
No, we just grow up and ourlungs grow with us and we may
have less symptoms because we'rebetter at preventing germs I'm
a germaphobe, where it could bebetter at preventing ways of
getting sick.
That's a big one.
You have to say, oh, it's justanxiety, it's all in your head,
(11:50):
you just take some deep breathsand you'll just be fighting.
No, it's actually in my lungs,but thanks for that.
Another one is people withasthma shouldn't do sports.
They need to just be on thechess club in school.
Well, no, we want your heartstrong, we want your lungs
strong.
And if you look at the Olympicathletes, the most common
disease among athletes Olympicathletes is asthma, if they're
(12:11):
competing at that they'recompeting at that global level
at the highest amount of theirsport.
Well, I can go for a walk aroundthe block or I can go for a
bike ride.
All my kids do sports and ifyou have exercise-induced asthma
, sometimes your doctor willhave you pre-medicate, they'll
have you use your albuterolinhaler, say, 20 minutes
beforehand, and so there's a lotyou can do.
(12:34):
But absolutely, sports are good.
Some people say, hey, I don'twant to use my inhalers because
they're addictive and I'll neverbe able to get off it and
they're going to stop workingover time.
My body's going to build up adefense.
Also, not true.
We talk about the inhaledcorticosteroids that a lot of
people use to control theirasthma.
Think of it as ananti-inflammatory.
(12:54):
It's keeping that swelling downin your lungs and that's the
number one thing people don'tunderstand about asthma.
Asthma, it is disease ofinflammation.
Your lungs swell and every timethey swell they're going to
build up scar tissue.
People that are not treatingtheir asthma over time can
actually go on to develop COPD.
So if you imagine you'reinjuring the same place on your
(13:17):
body you got that covered doorthat sticks out, or that part on
your island, you come aroundthe corner, you're always
hitting your hip on it.
Well, after a while you'regoing to build up scar tissue
there because that's a repeatedassault on the body.
That's what happens with asthma.
So really preventing that fromhappening and keeping that
swelling down in your lung, itcan lower the amount of asthma
attacks you're having.
(13:37):
It can help keep you out of thehospital.
That's an important one.
They're not addictive.
They don't stop working.
Another one is people say what?
I'm not hearing any wheezing.
Oh well, you can't be having anasthma flare because you're not
wheezing.
We don't all wheeze.
I can't wheeze to save my life,my daughter, I the room.
(13:59):
So if I end up in the ER, whichwe get the California fires all
the time, we get smoke fromthem all the time.
In my state ended back up inthe ER and then they're just
like you know, you're notwheezing.
I couldn't even speak.
So I had to have my husband sayyou know what.
She really knows what she'stalking about.
She's certified in asthma.
She doesn't wheeze.
She never has wheeze.
I have cough variant asthma, soyou can't always look for that.
That's another one of thosemyths that oh, they're not
wheezing so it's got to besomething else.
(14:20):
Those are some misconceptionsabout asthma.
I would say I'm in the RockyMountains in Salt Lake City,
utah, right outside all thebeautiful ski resorts.
It's a gorgeous place.
We have really horrible airquality right now.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
It's notoriously bad in.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
January.
In fact, I believe it's eithera red or orange air quality day.
Right now it's yellow, thehealth warning's yellow, and
that's from the fires in LA.
This is from our inversions.
So how do you plan yourday-to-day?
I had two grown kids that movedback home.
(14:56):
If they want to go out, they goto the gym, they go to the
local rec center to run and doall that type of stuff.
We really don't go out.
We make sure that we alwayshave the recirculating air set
on the cars when we go out.
When the air quality is reallybad like this, we also make sure
that we're changing the airfilter, the cabin filter for the
car.
So most people think, oh, youmean the cabin filter on the oil
(15:17):
?
No, no, no, it isn't the airfilter on the engine.
There's an air filter rightbehind the glove box and it
filters the air that comes intothe car.
So that needs to be changedvery frequently too if you're
driving around a lot with thisinversion.
So sometimes they don't allowthe kids to go out to recess on
really bad inversion daysbecause it can be that dangerous
for them.
Little kids breathe faster,they have a faster respiratory
(15:39):
rate, they're outside more thanadults, so they can really have
a lot of lung problems from this.
They're outside a lot, sothat's just part of where we
live.
We live at the bottom of a bowland all the air pollution is
trapped and we have thatinversion.
If you go up above that, you goup to Park City and go up to
some of the ski resorts, it'scrystal clear and blue,
beautiful skies, and then youcome down into this smog and
(16:00):
this gunk.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
Congratulations on winning the Asthma Home Visit
Program.
You won in 2022 the EPA theEnvironmental Leadership and
Asthma Management Award.
Can you tell us more about theprogram and its impact on
families?
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Yes, it was our statewide program.
I ran the program in my county.
I have about 750,000 people andwe cover about 2,400 square
miles.
I did all that driving aroundand visit people.
Our program was grant fundedfrom the state health department
.
It's the funding from the CDC.
It doesn't cost people anything, because it was only me for
(16:38):
750,000 people.
I could only help the peoplethat had the most severe asthma
or uncontrolled asthma.
So we would get referrals fromthe hospital, from emergency
rooms, from pediatricians, andwe would help those people.
And one thing I know, goingback 25 years ago when my son
was diagnosed, is you're just adeer in the headlight in the
hospital when you get adiagnosis.
(16:59):
You don't know up from down,and so when these people are
discharged and they're in theirhome and they're comfortable
because they're in theirfamiliar surroundings, it's
easier for them to learn and toremember what you're telling
them.
So these home visit programsare really important and they
may hear a tenth of what thedoctor told them with the
pediatrician or whoever they'regoing to go see.
(17:20):
So what we would do is we wouldgo into the home and I would
also offer visits after hoursbecause they don't want people
to miss work, because when youhave asthma and you're taking a
lot of sick days, I don't wantanybody their job to be in
jeopardy because I had them meetme there for two hours at their
house.
I would also offer to comeafter hours or, on a Saturday,
(17:40):
go into their home and we wouldteach them basics.
Asthma symptoms, emergencysymptoms, say.
Here's what normally happensduring an asthma check.
However, if these things starthappening, this is when I need
to go to the emergency room.
We would talk about asthmatriggers.
What are some of those thingsthat are going to set off your
asthma, and people just didn'trealize how the environment,
things around them, could affecttheir asthma.
We would talk to them aboutdifferent types of inhalers.
(18:03):
So, okay, let's put a stickeron this one.
This is one you're going totake every day.
I'm going to put a littlesticker on the back that has a
calendar, so that reminds youthat you're going to take that
every morning and every night,like your doctor's asked you to
this one over here years.
When you're having a little bitof that little tickle in the
straw, you start coughing, youcan use that inhaler and have a
little sticker of that of alittle kid coughing, because
(18:26):
most people really mix up theirinhalers, which one they use.
And then there's differenttypes of inhaler.
There's dry powder inhalers,meter dose inhalers and soft
mist inhalers.
All three of those are going tobe taken differently.
So go through all those and Ihave them.
Show me Now.
Just show me.
Pretend I'm not here.
Then you're just going to useyour inhaler for the day.
Show me how you would normallyuse that.
Remember I'm over here and Iwould show them a video with
proper inhaler technique and I'dsay okay, now tell me if you
(18:47):
notice anything different onthis video or anything else you
do differently.
If they couldn't remember ordidn't notice, then I would pick
it out.
Okay, just remember you got toshake that first, because it's
like an aerosol.
Make sure you shake that first,or make sure you breathe out
all the way first, then bringthe inhaler over.
So, whatever it is, we wouldcorrect their inhaler technique.
Then we'd have them teach itback to us.
No-transcript.
(19:27):
Outside of the pool noodle andthen there's a little bit of
saran wrap in the middle.
I said, okay, now try breathingthrough that.
That's what we have to try tobreathe through when we're
having an asthma attack or anasthma flare.
Look at this big piece of thispaper towel tube.
Look how big that is in themiddle, nothing causing problems
.
You can breathe right throughthat.
I would always say, if youremember nothing else about
today, you do not want to be apool noodle, and they would
(19:49):
laugh, but it would help themremember.
Yeah, I got to keep thatslowing down in my lungs.
So we do that on the firstvisit.
The second visit we come backand we teach them how to make
their house allergy and asthmafriendly In cleaning supplies.
I would write another grant tobe able to get cleaning supplies
for them and actually teachthem how to clean.
You would think that peopleknow how to clean their house,
but you got to do things alittle bit differently with
(20:11):
allergies and asthma, to makesure that you're getting rid of
dust, you're getting rid of moldand some things that wouldn't
maybe bother some of the otherpeople, helping them feel like,
instead of being a victim ofthat disease, that they, hey,
you know what.
I can do something to make surethat I'm not having so many bad
days and I'm not ending up inthe emergency room.
The stats for this and this isone of the reasons we won the
(20:33):
award we reduced people thatended up in the hospital that
participated in our program.
We reduced that by 87% yes, 87.
Visits to the ER decreased by75%.
People taking prednisone, as welike to call it, satan's little
tic-tacs, because you get alittle crazy when you're on it.
(20:53):
We were able to cut that inhalf for the people
participating in our program.
People missing remember Italked about missing work days
we decreased that 80%.
And kids missing school wedecreased that by 51%.
So really we're helping thesepeople have a better quality of
life.
They don't have all thesemedical bills.
I think it was for every $1that we would spend in the
(21:13):
program going out and visit them, we were saving.
I believe it was $3 in medicalcosts to the insurance companies
.
These programs are all over thecountry.
A lot of the public healthdepartments have them.
Some hospitals even have theseasthma home visit programs, if
you're interested.
I know a lot of people go ohhoney, I have had asthma all
these years.
I got to teach you a thing ortwo, and usually they don't know
as much as they think they door they're missing things, and
(21:37):
so really these programs arefantastic.
I can't rave about them enough.
So check and see if there's onein your area that is so helpful
.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
I think a lot of people this would never even
occur to me about if I'mcleaning my house well enough or
properly enough.
Am I forgetting something?
I've got cats, so of course I'mhypersensitive to.
When I'm having guests I haveto warn them about my cats.
But I have a friend that comesto visit and she's allergic.
So this room is off, it'squarantined.
There's things we don't thinkabout, like curtains, window
(22:07):
blinds Huh, what do you?
Speaker 2 (22:09):
recommend.
I have been looking at rightnow at my bay window at these
beautiful plantation shutters.
They're the worst for asthma.
I don't know about all of you,but that is not on my list of
to-do things.
By the end of the day I am tootired, but I'm not sleeping
under these.
So it's okay If you havesomething like that over your
bed or those two-inch woodblinds.
The horizontal areas are goingto trap dust, making sure that
(22:31):
you're cleaning those a lot orswitching to something else.
What we did in my daughter'sroom because she was extra
sensitive to dust is we had justthe Roman shades.
They would just roll up duringthe day.
It's that vertical surface.
None of the dust will stick toit.
And then we'd roll it down andwe had little shears underneath
that.
I made sure that all thecurtains we can have washed.
My in-laws had a vacation homeand you know how they would nail
(22:53):
those curtains up to the wall.
Those had not been washed in 30years.
So make sure you're washing yourcurtains, cleaning the blinds,
your vacuum at least once a weekwith a HEPA vacuum and make
sure that you are vacuumingunder the beds.
Everybody forgets that, but ourasthma specialist did not let
us store anything under the beds, because think about the last
time you actually gave a goodcleaning under your bed.
Usually when you move, whichfor me is like every 13 years or
(23:16):
something like that If you areshort on storage and you do need
to put things under the bed,they do make really low, narrow
bins that you can get you canslide underneath.
Make sure when you're vacuumingevery single week, pull those
out, vacuum underneath it, wipeoff the top of that lid with the
microfiber cloth and make sureyou're keeping that dust down In
(23:36):
bathrooms.
Make sure that you're runningthe exhaust fan the entire time
you're showering and anadditional 15 minutes and that's
really going to pull thatmoisture out of that room.
Another thing to look for I loveinterior design shows,
obviously, because that's my jam.
I see this fantastic howthey're tiling the bathrooms.
Well, 10 years, 15 years downthe road, you're going to have
cracked grout.
You're going to have missinggrout, you're going to have
(23:57):
missing grout and that can causeblack mold to grow all behind
your wall.
Ask me how.
I know Happened in my lasthouse.
Sometimes a shower surroundmight be a better option.
They've changed over the years.
They used to be really uglywhen I was younger.
Now they make them.
I have one upstairs and itlooks like white subway tile.
You can get them, so they looklike good marble, not like the
kind of marble that they used tomake.
(24:18):
So water intrusion is really aproblem for a lot of people and
I don't know if you've everheard of water meters or little
water alarms.
You can get inexpensive wateralarms from the hardware store.
You can put those by your waterheater.
When those go out, those go outand you've got 50 gallons
flooding your basement, which wealso had happen.
You can put them behind yourwashing machine if it leaks.
(24:40):
You can put them by toilets ifthey leak.
They have some that are reallyinexpensive and they will do a
really high decibel sound thatwill wake up the entire
neighborhood, or they even haveversions you can connect to your
phones While you're travelingon vacation.
It can alert you.
If you're at work, you'retraveling, it will let you know
that something's leaking.
So there's a lot of preventionthat goes on with that we talk
(25:04):
about.
You don't want little crittersin your house, so making sure
that you take away their foodand water source is really
important.
Washing the dishes beforeyou're going to bed, wiping down
the countertops, getting thoseteenagers or college kids,
whoever's at home, making surethat you're using chip clips,
making sure that things arestored in Tupperware containers.
Take that trash out.
You don't want that smell,bringing in the mice and roaches
and that type of thing.
I could go on forever.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
Managing asthma as a family can be challenging, but
what advice would you give toparents that are raising
children with asthma andallergies?
Speaker 2 (25:34):
You know, this is a lifelong disease and this is not
going to be a sprint, this isgoing to be a marathon.
Trying to involve the familymembers.
When one of my kids would be inthe hospital, we'd go down and
every Friday night we had pizzaand movie night.
Well, we'd go to the hospitaland have pizza and movie night
and then we would have the otherkids help out.
Hey, can you go grab thenebulizer for me?
Can you grab a vial ofalbuterol?
(25:55):
Can you go get the oximeter?
We need to stick that on hisfinger.
So getting everybody involved,because I wasn't always going to
be there and everybody needs toknow how to respond in an
emergency if someone was introuble.
There was a time I was outsitting up for a garden party in
my backyard.
I don't know what set me off.
I was coughing so hard and,andy, I don't know if you've
ever done this, where you'recoughing so hard, you're trying
(26:15):
to throw up, you've got a reallybad asthma attack.
I came into the house and I wasjust shaking and I was trying
to get the nebulizer.
My son just swooped in behindme, grabbed the nebulizer, put
the outbeater on, put the kittogether, put it on, turned it
on and handed it to me, and Ineeded that right then because I
was doubled over on my kneestrying not to throw up.
So having everybody in thefamily know how to help with
(26:40):
whatever disease it is If it'swith diabetes, have them know
how to check your blood sugarand how to be able to give you
your insulin.
If it's with any other disease,whatever that is, everybody in
the family needs to know how totreat that and let everybody
know.
Sorry, I haven't spent that muchtime with you this week.
You know, maybe we can go outto lunch on the weekend or
something, because other kidsare going to get left out when
one kid's in the hospital.
That can be a problem.
(27:01):
And then don't be afraid to askfor help.
If you need somebody to helptake your carpool shift, if you
need somebody to run your kidsto soccer, if you need people to
bring in meals when people arelike, oh, if there's anything I
can do, just let me know.
I could really use a meal.
Tonight.
I haven't gone to the grocerystore.
I am so tired of starting amigraine, whatever it is.
You know people do want to help, so give them something
(27:23):
concrete to do, and then we usea lot of humor in our family.
So we're, yeah, we're always.
And I know, jenny, you loveAladdin, so we'll quote lines
from Disney movies, and with theone with the little penguins I
just forgot the name of it wherethey with Alex the lion,
(27:44):
madagascar thank you.
The penguins when they get tothe wrong place they go.
Well, this sucks.
You know my daughter wouldquote that.
We'd quote other movies.
Try to have some fun with it,because you're either going to
laugh or cry.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
But you know laughing doesn't give me a headache when
it comes to things like toysaround the house.
Do you need to wash them often?
Do you need to limit?
How often Do you need to limithow many are around?
Speaker 2 (28:08):
Yeah, yes, that's what we would tell people.
Make sure that you're washingthe bedding on your bed once a
week, everything on the bed.
And for most people I would say, when was the last time you
washed your bedding?
And people would say, I don'tknow.
If you can't remember, go washit.
If you're listening to thispodcast, put your laundry in if
you can't remember.
And then we would always set aday of the week.
We've got a house full of kidswhen they were younger, so
(28:28):
everybody would have a day ofthe week.
So every Friday my husbandworked 410.
So Friday morning you'd go popthe laundry in.
So once a week is best practicefor washing your bedding.
Obviously, dry it.
I don't know if people areliving in different climates.
Really, drying it outside andhanging it on the clothesline is
the worst possible thing youcould do.
If you have allergies, thatpollen is going to stick to that
wet fabrics.
(28:48):
If you can use a dryer, that'sreally the best thing to do.
And then we would limit thestuffed animals for our kids.
Grandma would always give themsomething for their birthday and
Christmas and any other reason,because they were so cute.
We'd limit it.
We'd say, okay, well, you canput two of your favorite
stuffies on your bed.
The rest were in a bin coveredup with the lid on.
Then about once a month we'dalso wash and dry the stuffed
animals too.
Sometimes that can affect thefur.
(29:10):
Sometimes you can put them in alingerie bag or a pillowcase
and then pin that over the topand put safety pins all along
the top of it, and then itdoesn't get as much agitation,
but making sure that that roomis really clean.
Also, you can use air cleanersin the rooms.
We swear by air cleaners.
We have them in each of thebedrooms, so that can really
help too.
But yeah, good question aboutthe stuffed animals.
(29:30):
Those are a magnet for dust.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
This is helpful because, even though I don't
have asthma, we all have companyover at some point and you want
to make sure that you arethinking ahead and being
respectful for guests.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
That's what you can do in your living room.
If you have a vacuum if youhave a canister vacuum or
regular vacuum with theattachment on it you can vacuum
off the couch, because cat hairsticks to everything we all know
that.
Or you can use a lint roller.
There are some sprays out therethat are low odor, that are
allergy and asthma friendly,that reduce allergen.
You can give the couch a quickspritz or the carpet, turn on
(30:02):
the ceiling fan, make sure allthat airs out before your guest
gets there, and a lot of thingsthat I would do.
If I would go to a house for anasthma home visit and I would
pull up to the house and theyard was just a mess, I knew the
inside was going to look thatway too, I would just
pre-medicate.
I'd use my albuterol before I'dgo in.
If I go to a friend's housethat has dogs, I'm also allergic
(30:22):
to dogs, so I just use my nailart before I go.
I'm just knowing.
You know I may need to use itagain when I get in there, but
there's things we can do to kindof preempt it for us as well.
Speaker 3 (30:31):
And things like ceiling fans too.
Make sure you're cleaning thedust off of those.
Those get nasty.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
I actually created a graphic for that on my socials
of things that people might notthink about.
So and think your computerscreen here.
It just sucks that, dust your.
So and think your computerscreen here it just sucks that.
Dust your big screen TV.
Make sure that you're usingsomething.
I grew up using the featherdusters.
Those things were useless.
Now they have dusters that thedust will actually stick to, so
being able to go all throughoutthe house and we do, we do the
(30:57):
fans do.
On top of.
Well, if people are still usingVCRs or DVD players, or maybe
your router TV screens, anythinglike that, make sure you're
dusting all of that as well.
Good suggestion.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
Get it off, don't just move it around.
Exactly Now, you've also beeninvolved in asthma education at
the global level.
How do approaches to asthmamanagement differ across
cultures, and what lessons haveyou learned from working
internationally?
Speaker 2 (31:25):
A lot of the asthma inhalers can have different
names in different countries.
I can't say, for instance, Ineed to use my reliever inhaler
here, it's albuterol.
Here in the US, well, in the UKit's salbuterol.
So there's going to bedifferent names.
We can't go by names becauseevery country is going to call
things differently.
We need to just say theanti-inflammatory or the one
(31:47):
that you're going to take everymorning and every night, and
then this one is when you'rehaving symptoms.
You can go ahead and take it.
I think that's important inoffering resources in the
countries where they live.
So not everybody lives in theUS that goes through my socials
or follows my blog or anythinglike that.
I'll share resources fromAustralia or England or
something from India, and somaking sure they have resources
(32:09):
in their country and thenknowing that things that I may
share in the US may not apply toother countries because our
healthcare system is different.
We may pay significantly morefor inhalers here than they do
in other countries, and I knowCongress had addressed that, and
three out of the four inhalercompanies have actually lowered
their co-pays to $35.
One did not.
My inhaler is one of thosethat's still quite expensive.
(32:31):
I have to not only useinsurance, but then I have to
download a coupon and use acoupon every year to be able to
get that extra $50 off.
I think that things are goingto be different in all the
different countries and you'reright when it comes to different
customs and things in differentcountries.
So for some cultures having achihuahua, they believe that
that will absorb all of thediseases in the home.
(32:52):
But then it's also an asthmatrigger if they have asthma and
are allergic to dogs.
So how do you approach that?
I would never tell people to getrid of their pets.
I was on an asthma home visitand went into a home and a woman
said if you're going to tell meto get rid of my dog, you can
just turn around and walk rightback out that door.
And I said oh no, I'm not oneof those kind of people, don't
worry.
But is there a way that theycan still have their pet but
(33:13):
maybe have a pet-free room forthe child to sleep in at night?
Maybe the dog isn't allowed inthe bedroom and maybe the door
stays closed and the showers?
Before they go to bed to getall the dander off, them climb
into those nice clean sheetsthat they just washed.
At the week mark.
They have their air cleaner inthere, so maybe can they have
one safe room that the pet's notallowed in.
So you have to be a little bitdelicate with different people
(33:35):
and the needs that they have.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
What resources or programs would you recommend to
families that are seeking tobetter understand and manage
asthma?
Speaker 2 (33:44):
I would go.
There's three patientorganizations that are sort of
rivals here in the US, butthere's three that are really
good and make sure that theyhave patient-friendly
information, low literacy levelfor graphics, seminars, some of
the summits all that's free, sokind of.
The three big is American LungAssociation.
They've been around for what Ithink over a hundred years or
something.
They have all sorts of videos.
(34:05):
They have an asthma basics oran asthma 101.
There's another one, asthma andAllergy Foundation of America,
afa, and then the third one isAllergy and Asthma Network.
There are the professionalorganizations, but a lot of
times that information is a lothigher literacy level and a
little bit harder for people tounderstand.
But these three seem to focusmore on basic webinars for
people to understand throughoutthe year.
(34:26):
So those are some good options,fantastic, thank you.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
First I want to say how confusing this interview has
been because we have the samename.
Every time you say her name,I'm like huh, you know where I'm
from, but you weren't talkingto me.
It has been throwing me off.
I'm not being passive orinattentive.
I'm trying not to respond tohearing my name, but I do have a
question, because we feel likewe lose things when we're told
(34:50):
that we can't have the smellgood stuff and the candles and
the perfumes and the fragrances.
What would you tell someonewho'd be diagnosed that they
have to when they have to givethese things up?
What are alternatives for themto still have a little fun and
not die of, you know,suffocation from having the
asthma?
Speaker 2 (35:09):
You know, and it could be something as simple as
trying a different perfume,because I, Andy, I don't know
about you, but patchouli oil isthe worst for me.
It will trigger an asthmaattack every time.
Every time I fly, somebody ison the plane with patchouli oil.
I fly with an N95 mask becausewhen I get COVID I'm on oxygen
(35:29):
for six months all day long, soI'm trying to avoid that.
I can even taste it through themask, so I'll premedicate.
Same thing I'll premedicatebefore I get on the plane.
If somebody you know that'stheir go-to and if that's
triggering an asthma attack forthem or family members, is there
a different type of perfumethat they could try?
A different type of perfumethat they could try?
I had a really awkwardconversation where I had to ask
the secretary at the healthdepartment where I work not to
wear her patchouli oil because Icould smell it out in the hall
(35:51):
before I even got to the office.
So is there a different type ofperfume that they can try?
With the house being a littlebit stuffy, you can actually
switch on the fan so itcirculates the air through your
house on a regular basis.
It increases those airexchanges that can help have a
little teeny, tiny candle righthere.
I'll turn it on for maybe 10,15 minutes, that's it, and then
(36:12):
it's off.
And it's not a strong scent,it's just vanilla.
You can treat yourselves everyonce in a while, but it's going
to be trial and error.
If you're trying somethingthat's giving asthma attack,
think maybe I should use adifferent scent.
I had one in the fall.
There was something that waspumpkin, way too spicy.
Threw that one away.
I can just do vanilla and itgives me a little bit of a scent
.
So we're not here to kill alltheir fun.
(36:32):
We're here to say, oh, we'lltry something else in that area
that might be a little bit saferfor you.
Speaker 5 (36:38):
My son has asthma and we lived in Kansas.
We moved here to Arizona whenhe was in second grade.
We lived in Kansas, we movedhere to Arizona when he was in
second grade and we noticed,just switching location, his
asthma started going away, butit didn't go away.
He just wasn't around all thoseallergens in the Midwest.
(37:00):
He is now starting to develophis asthma again.
It's almost like his bodyadjusted.
So he's having to learn moreabout his asthma as an adult,
because he's 25 and he hasn'treally dealt with it since he
was in elementary.
Do you have any tips orsuggestions I could share with
(37:21):
him?
We made him get rid of his cat.
He had a cat and we thoughtmaybe that has helped.
But do you have any other tipsyou could share with somebody
that is now dealing with it asan adult?
That's?
Speaker 2 (37:36):
not uncommon at all.
I remember asking my specialistI need to move.
There's somewhere I can movethat will be safer.
He said it doesn't matter whereyou live.
You will develop new allergiesto wherever you're living.
You're going to become allergicto new bushes, new trees.
So does he have allergies aswell as asthma?
Speaker 5 (37:52):
Yes, he does.
He has seasonal allergies.
Yes, Okay.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
So the biggest thing about asthma is he has the
allergic type asthma.
It's really controlling yourallergies, because that's going
to control your asthma.
So first thing that's going tostart is in the spring it's
trees.
People don't realize that treeshave pollen.
Trees are going to be yourenemy in the spring, Summer is
grass and in the fall is ragweed.
So one of the best things youcan do and I know Arizona gets
(38:20):
raging hot like we do, andsometimes you get that- nice
little breeze.
Speaker 5 (38:24):
We're actually in central Arizona.
We're kind of mild four seasons.
He's moving soon where there isno grass.
I'm hoping that might make adifference this summer for him.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
And the thing is pollen can travel, so ragweed's
the worst.
They've found it thousands ofmiles out to sea.
He may not.
Depending on where he lives,he's probably never going to
find a safe space.
One of the best things he cando is shower before he goes to
bed every night.
That's going to remove all thatpollen from his hair.
Keep the windows closed.
I don't care if there's a nicebreeze coming in.
Okay, does he have an aircleaner in his room?
Speaker 5 (39:00):
No, but that might be a Valentine's present for him.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
There you go.
The other other thing is is heon allergy medicine?
Speaker 5 (39:08):
yes, just okay.
They told him to take over thecounter.
But when it flares up, hisasthma does kick in really bad
when he gets any type of a chestcold and that's how it all
started was he had rsv as a.
He was about a year and a halfand and that's when the asthma
started, but it got worse as theseason changed in Kansas.
Speaker 2 (39:30):
And now it's starting back up, and that's the thing
is what we talked about asthmabeing a disease of inflammation
is making sure that he's on theright medicine for his body and
for his type of asthma.
So does he take a dailycontroller inhaler right now?
Speaker 5 (39:44):
Yes, and I couldn't tell you the name, because he
buys it and he doesn't live withus anymore, but he has a rescue
one, and a daily one, okay,sometimes people aren't great
about taking a daily inhalerbecause you woke up late, you're
late for work.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
And when we started our asthma home visit program,
it was set up to say how manydays a week are you taking your
inhaler?
I'm like no, no, no, no, that'snot going to cut it, because I
heard a doctor at an asthmaconference and he said the best
way to say is about how manydays a week do you remember to
take it?
Because most people only taketheir inhaler two or three days
a week and they'll say, well, Itake mine four days a week.
(40:19):
Then you have the real number,because they're not telling you
seven to please you.
You're getting to what's reallygoing on.
There are some people saywhat's the barrier and what's
going on there?
Can they afford the controllerinhaler they need to take every
morning and night?
Do they need to pair it withanother activity?
Are they brushing their teethevery morning and every night?
Speaker 5 (40:35):
Let's hope, because sometimes guys can be guys.
Speaker 2 (40:39):
Can you put it near his toothbrush?
There have been some teenagers.
And what do you do everymorning?
Well, I go to school.
What do you do before you go toschool?
I put my sneakers on.
They put their inhaler in theirsneakers, so they can't go to
school until they use theirinhalers.
It's pairing it with anotheractivity and it's helping him
understand why my thing is Iwant to do that.
Well, why?
Why do I have to take this?
(40:59):
So, once I understood thatthat's keeping that swelling
down down in the lungs Rememberthat pool noodle.
If you're a pool noodle and youget a cold on top of that, or
you get COVID on top of that, orthe flu or anything else,
you're going to end up in the ER, you're going to end up in the
hospital and you're going to besick for a long time.
It takes a long time, once thatswelling's there, to get that
swelling down in the lungs,because the lungs do not like to
be bothered.
So preventing that fromhappening in the first place can
(41:20):
be really helpful.
They helpful, they did come outwith that.
There's a new treatment they use.
Oh, there's new guidelines thatthey use and it's called um
smart therapy and you use thesame inhaler as your reliever
inhaler as you do as yourcontroller inhaler.
Some people are like, look, I'mnot going to use it every day,
I'm not going to remember I gotstuff going on in my life.
It's just too much so for him.
(41:41):
Instead of um, this inhalerthat I have is just albuterol
there.
There's a newer one which Ican't get to right now because
it's upstairs.
It's a combination of albuteroland it has that little
anti-inflammatory in it.
So if he's having asthmaattacks during the week and this
new medication has been outjust over a year it was
available forever in Europe andit's called Air Supra, it's all
one word.
(42:01):
So it has albuterol in it andit has a little bit of the
anti-inflammatory as well.
So every time if he's having aflare-up and he's going to use
his albuterol, he's going to geta little kick of that
anti-inflammatory.
There's two controller inhalerson the market that you can use
every day and then you can alsouse when you're having an asthma
attack, and that's Dulera andSimbacort.
Both of them have a medicine incalled F motor all.
(42:23):
If you look at graphs of howalbuterol works and how from
motor all works, they'reidentical.
It works just as fast asalbuterol, but it lasts longer.
So those two medications,studies have shown um I'm not
all throughout the world andhere in the us that people can
use those if they don't want touse it.
Say, he remembers to take hissimbacort or his dual air twice
a week.
Then he can use the same onefor his reliever inhaler,
(42:46):
because some people don't likecarrying around two inhalers.
Speaker 5 (42:48):
That might be a barrier that he's dealing with,
but I like the noodle example,because I think he will
understand that a little better.
Speaker 2 (42:58):
He's a boy, you know, and a lot of times I have two
boys and a girl.
How like I have two boys and agirl.
How kids are, let's see how oldare they?
30 at 25, and you know theydon't like to be different.
So this, these are what I woulduse.
Okay, if you can see thosethere.
So this is a paper towel tube.
I just put craft paper aroundthe outside to mimic the color
(43:19):
of the pool little.
You go to the dollar store andget those latex rubber bands.
You could see this how thebands are just pulling in around
that when you have an asthmaattack.
These bands, they're smoothmuscles and they tighten and
they shorten and they justsqueeze from the outside.
You got all that swelling goingon from the inside.
Look at that versus the poolnoodle.
Let me flip them around andthen what little room is left?
(43:40):
There's my little saran wrap.
So try breathing through thatversus this.
So try breathing through thatversus this.
So having them just understand.
You know you're going to have abetter quality of life if you
can really prevent havingproblems in the first place
going on with the lungs.
I mean, most people don't wantto hear that.
You know, 20 years down theroad they're going to be on
oxygen because they did controltheir asthma and it transitioned
to COPD.
They don't care.
That's far down the road.
They don't care.
(44:00):
But you can ask them is thereanything that you can do now
that you want to do that youfeel like you can't do because
of asthma?
He might say, well, I can'tplay basketball with my buddies
because I'm really short ofbreath or you know, whatever it
is he likes to do, and you cansay you know, humor me what
would happen if you tried usingyour inhaler, say like every day
for two weeks, like morning andnight, like the doctor wanted
(44:20):
you to, just curious to see ifyou feel like you don't have to
use your reliever inhaler asmuch, if you can keep up with
your buddies in basketball orskateboarding, whatever he likes
to do.
So sometimes, if you phrase itthat way, like fine, I'll try it
.
You know that I follow up withthem in two weeks they're like I
didn't use my inhaler in twoweeks.
That never happens Sometimesyou can try and approach
(44:40):
something like that, thank youso much.
Speaker 5 (44:47):
Those were great tips to help him.
As adults, they think they'rean adult, but I love the
examples, so I appreciate it.
Thank you, you're welcome.
I understand.
Speaker 4 (44:53):
I love having like a physical object to explain it
and it kind of like helps peoplesee it.
So like how we were talkingabout medicine shamers.
If you had that to show amedicine shamer, they would be
like oh right, yeah, Okay,they're going to need medication
to help with inflammation.
I wish I had a pool noodle andsomething to explain what my
joint is like.
Speaker 2 (45:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (45:10):
Because, I have rheumatoid arthritis.
Speaker 4 (45:12):
Those who are like do you need medication Because
it's an invisible illness and soit's visible.
Speaker 2 (45:16):
We can't see it To have something physical helps
the professional model, and thisone shows what happens.
But most people are like whateven is that?
So I've come up as a designerbeing creative.
Let's come up with something alittle bit more creative.
So this they understand.
I would go to the dollar storeevery spring and I would buy
these out of pocket, pay with itfor my own money.
(45:37):
I would make sets of these forall of our school nurses.
In other places they'reemployed by the schools, but
they were employed by the healthdepartments.
Give them a set of these everyyear.
You always have a whole bunchof new nurses.
I put a little flyer in thereabout the asthma home visit
program.
I'm like.
These are latex-free.
You can teach students aboutwhat happens and why it's
important for them to use theirinhaler.
This costs almost nothing.
Speaker 3 (46:09):
But yes, I wish we had something for could think of
a physical way to show peoplewhat it is that we're all
feeling, even though they can'tsee it.
Speaker 2 (46:15):
Yeah, hope you can come up with something.
I'll have to think that wouldbe really interesting to show
what happens with RA.
Speaker 3 (46:21):
I appreciate your time so much.
This was so helpful, thank you.
Speaker 2 (46:26):
Thank you everyone.
I hope this helps people thatare listening.
You can live a good quality oflife with asthma.
Just get on the rightmedication for your body, for
your type of asthma.
If you don't like the inhaler,go back to your doctor.
There's a whole rainbow ofoptions of inhalers on the
market.
If you don't like your using,go back and say is there
something else?
I just don't like this one.
There's injectables that theyuse now to control asthma.
(46:46):
There's a lot out there.
Don't give up.
Keep trying until you findsomething that works for you and
works for your body.
Speaker 4 (46:51):
And thank you all, for all you do because you're
helping so many people.
Speaker 3 (46:55):
All right, everyone.
Until next time.
Don't forget your spoon.
Welcome back to Merle's Little Needs Sisters.
We are thrilled to have Andrea,a Certified Health Education
Specialist and Certified AsthmaEducator.
Her dedication to asthmaeducation spans local, state,
national and global levels,including leading programs like
award-winning Asthma Home VisitProgram.
Andrea, welcome to the pod.
(00:21):
How you doing.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Thank you y'all, I'm doing well.
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
We did a little introduction and you know the
stuffy bio, the stuffy bio.
Can you tell us a little bitabout yourself?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
My original degree was in interior design, which I
still love because you know Igot to keep my skills sharp.
But love, love, love what I doin public health.
I'll help anytime, anybodyanywhere, anytime.
On vacation, I help somebody inHawaii.
Love to travel, love Paris it'smy favorite city.
I love Hawaii.
We just rescued two gingerkittens and I know people say
(00:54):
you cannot have pets if you haveallergies and asthma.
Well, we've all had allergyshots and I'm never going to be
a grandma, so the two littlekittens are going to be my
grandbabies and we love them andwe just keep a really clean
house, stay up on the allergymedicines and all that.
But yeah, I'm a sucker forkittens, definitely.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Do you mind sharing a bit of background of how your
son's asthma diagnosis inspiredyou to shift from interior
design to public health andasthma education?
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Always an interesting story and people want to know
what's going on behind thescenes.
When my middle son was five, Inoticed that he was always a lot
sicker than his older brotherand he would get sick.
It would last a lot longer thatmother's intuition.
You know your kids and you knowsomething's wrong.
And this is way back in Januaryof 2000.
So 25 years ago I had my littlearticle from Parents Magazine
(01:46):
and I took that to thepediatrician because that's what
we used back then, because theinternet wasn't really a big
thing back then, a lot of peopledidn't have computers.
I said to my doctor I'm reallyconcerned.
This child has asthma and heshows all the symptoms here.
Something is off with this kid.
He said oh no, it's a virus.
About two weeks later I tookhim back to the doctor.
He was sick again.
(02:06):
He looked terrible, his skinwas pale, he had dark circles
under his eyes, he was reallylethargic and that mom instinct,
like something's wrong with mychild, took him to the
pediatrician and all of a sudden, instead of saying, oh honey,
it's just a virus, but you know,I'm a doctor, the room swarms
with people and I've got peopleputting an oxygen monitor on his
finger.
I'm setting up an albuterolbreathing treatment.
(02:29):
The doctor doesn't come in alot.
All sorts of other people werethere and I thought what's going
on?
He said, well, he's having ahard time breathing.
I'm like, yeah, that's why Ibrought him in.
I knew something was wrong.
They said we need you to drivearound to the other side of the
building and we're going toadmit him to the hospital.
I was eight months pregnant.
I had a really horriblepregnancy, got some heart issues
(02:49):
.
I was supposed to be home onstrict bed rest.
That meant getting up to go tothe bathroom, getting up to
shower.
That was it.
Couldn't find anybody to takeme down to the pediatrician with
him.
Now I've got to drive around tothe hospital.
I call my husband and say heworks an hour away.
Something's going on.
They're admitting our son to thehospital and he's in a panic.
He borrows a car.
I get to the hospital andthey're like honey, do you need
(03:10):
a wheelchair?
I'm like I've got to take himup to Peds.
I get up to Peds and therespiratory therapist there and
I'm like what is going on here?
He said, oh, we're admittinghim for asthma.
I said uh-uh, no, I just talkedto the pediatrician and he said
he does not have asthma.
And he said oh, he has asthma,right, that's why we are
admitting him.
So deer in the headlights look.
Didn't know anything aboutasthma, didn't know terminology,
(03:32):
didn't know how the diseaseworked, didn't know how it
worked on different people.
Just, absolutely in a panic, Iam going into preterm labor at
this point.
It was a really hard situationand, bless his heart, the
(03:57):
respiratory therapist went overto his computer, printed off 30
pages worth of information fromthe Internet, came and flopped
it down on my son's bedsidetable, turned on his heel and
then just called over shoulder,call me if you get a diagnosis.
You should get the information.
This is back before smartphones.
It wasn't like I could justpull up my phone and sit on the
corner of his bed and Googlewhat is asthma, what are the
signs and symptoms?
None of that was available.
It was a really, really rockyroad.
I dove into the world of asthma.
I started reading those 30pages worth of medical articles.
(04:20):
I was circling, I washighlighting Respiratory
therapists would come in.
I said what does this mean?
What's this work?
Then we were introduced to anasthma specialist.
The thing that can be reallyhard is that when my son was
discharged the first time, thepediatrician said oh, he doesn't
need to be on all thoseinhalers.
You know there's steroids inthem.
(04:43):
That kind of stuff is good forthe body.
You need to stop all those,which I did what the doctor told
me.
My son was back in the hospitalfour weeks later with pneumonia
again.
So this time we decided to gowith the asthma specialist and
go with someone who knew what itwas.
This is his specialty.
That can be a little bit hardsometimes.
When my son was first diagnosed,I had some hopeful family
members that were intohomeopathic medicine.
They said you know what?
We've got these drops.
(05:04):
Just put them under his tongueand not fix anything.
Starts having problems.
Just use that.
This is an older family member.
She had six kids.
I trusted her.
My son ended up in the ICU.
I said we're done here.
I'm going to listen to thespecialists and make sure that
I'm following all the medicalprofessionals.
I'm not going to mess withessential oils or anything else.
I've got to go with what worksand what the guidelines are.
(05:28):
Through myself in the world ofasthma, attending webinars,
listening to anything I couldread, anything I could.
Then, when I would learn thingsfrom the doctor.
I'd be sharing this withfriends whose kids had asthma.
A friend that worked in publichealth said you know, you are
really good at this working withfamilies and explaining things
how they could understand.
You should get a degree inpublic health.
I said what is that?
(05:48):
I found a program at the localuniversity and she said you
should go back and get a degreein this and you can get paid for
what you're good at and helpingfamilies.
So I did.
It had been 19 years since I'dbeen in college.
My oldest son was startingcollege the same time I was
going to college.
I was terrified.
I had gone to college.
We used typewriters and cardcatalogs and hear all these kids
(06:09):
on their laptops whizzingaround.
It was terrifying.
But made it through, earned mysecondary bachelor's degree, had
to take core classes, graduatedwith honors and then became
certified nationally in publichealth and asthma.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
You said it was the year 2000.
If we wanted to try to find outanything, get on AOL and watch
that dial-up happen.
It's going to take forever toget into a chat room to talk to
other parents.
Right, I know that for me itwas call my mom, my grandma, my
aunt.
Have you had to deal with this?
What can you tell me?
Right, with everything, did youfeel at one point you're ready
(06:43):
to fire your pediatrician?
Speaker 2 (06:46):
I did.
We stopped seeing him forasthma.
We'd only go to the asthmaspecialist.
I would take my kids back.
The kids had strep throat orthey broke their arm or
something we would go to.
The pediatrician made a firmboundary that the family member
was not to talk to me about anyhomeopathic treatments at that
point.
And they kept trying to do thatwith some of my heart problems
and I said this is none of yourbusiness.
(07:08):
I'm going to go to the doctorsthat are board certified and
specialize in this.
I'm going to make sure theinformation I get is accurate,
because that almost cost my sonhis life, that is a valid point.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
It's hard to want to weed out and listen on things
and not others.
People are overstepping whenthey think they're trying to be
helpful.
I see so many nodding heads.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
I'm sure there's extreme situations that you have
all dealt with.
Listen, listen, it's Allie.
Hello, I get a lot of DMs onInstagram about people who did
not start their medicationbecause of what we call in the
studio world like medicineshamers, and we've all almost
all of us have dealt with it.
It's really hard, especiallywhen we're getting diagnosed.
I put off medication because Ihad medicine chambers in my life
(07:45):
telling me that it's going tothe first group I was in.
The woman said it's going tokill me the medication because
it killed her brother.
Like I've had a lot of peoplelike say, don't take that and I
got joint damage because of it.
So I see a lot of people notstart their medication because
of the fear and I'm like, pleasejust talk to your doctor, don't
listen to random.
I mean, yes, we want to listento random strangers on the
(08:06):
internet for, like, nice help,like you know, like all of us,
what we're doing here, but whenyou, when you really need
medical advice, you need to goto a doctor and voice your fears
and not just listen to medicineshamers tell you don't do this
because it's going to wreakhavoc on your body.
It's like if it were happeningto you, I think you would have a
different perspective, becausethat medicine shamer who had me
like not want to take my medsand ended up happening to a
(08:28):
family member of theirs and theywere like, oh, they need
medication.
It's like, yeah, when ithappens to someone close in your
family, you'll understand.
But yeah, so I'm verypassionate about this.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
So my thing in the inboxes is that this tea will
cure cancer, pregnancy, genitalwarts.
I was like how do you curepregnancy?
I always get stuck on that one.
But how do you cure pregnancy?
Then you want me to think thatthis is about to take away all
of my autoimmune disease.
You sprinkled in pregnancy withtesticular cancer.
This is a miracle tea.
(08:58):
It's a no, you don't need thosemedications, but I do.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
I don't want to hear about herbs.
I don't want to hear about thejuices, the latest tropical
juice that's going to cure me.
And so that's why I,specifically on my socials of my
life as an asthma mom, I'llshare stories about what we went
through.
I make sure that there'saccurate information there.
I will link to Mayo Clinic orone of the other allergy and
American Lung Association orsome of the national, because I
(09:25):
want to make sure that they knowthat the information I'm giving
is accurate, because it can bereally dangerous.
And why shame somebody?
You are not in their shoes andyou do not know what they're
going through.
And I've had so many people sayI just I don't have to take
medicine for the rest of my life.
I'm like, why not?
I intend to live a long lifeand annoy my kids.
They're all adults now.
I want to annoy them forseveral more decades.
(09:47):
I want to live a long life andif this can help me do that, I'm
going to take it, yeah, andlet's be realistic.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
We owe those kids, yeah, everything that they've
put us through in our lives.
We owe them to be around.
Have you ever seen those videosof the parents acting like the
child going through their house?
Yes, messing up all the dishes?
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Yeah, I want to be that parent Flipping the lights
on, leaving the cupboard doorsopen, setting cream on the
counter, letting it melt allthat, yeah, yeah.
If we made it through teenageyears with our kids, we deserve
a medal.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Andrea.
I was diagnosed with asthma inthe 80s.
Okay, I had the pediatricianthat had never asthma, because
it was so apparently uncommon inthe 80s.
What are some of themisconceptions about asthma that
you encounter in your field?
Because when I was getting mydiagnosis they had my mom
thinking I had cystic fibrosisand they were holding me over
beds and beating my back andchest and doing all of the stuff
(10:40):
.
All I really needed to do wasget the mucus out my lungs
because I had asthma and a goodold nebulizer treatment would
have cleared that up.
But you know.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
A lot of people say oh, it's just asthma, just use
your inhaler.
That's not good enoughsometimes.
Sometimes you need a nebulizer.
Sometimes people need a dailycontroller anti-inflammatory,
which is what I need, and then Ialso need to have a dual
inhaler.
That also is the long actingversion of albuterol.
So there's different types ofasthma.
It depends really on your body.
(11:09):
Just like all of us lookdifferent on the screen, asthma
can look different for everybody.
It depends on what type ofphenotype and endotype of asthma
you have.
Some of the biggest myths arethat asthma is just a childhood
disease.
Well, guess what?
They grow up to be adults andthey still have asthma.
And asthma does not go away.
And I said well, I'm a little60.
How old do you have to bebefore you outgrow asthma?
(11:30):
And that's a really common one.
That people say is that peopleoutgrow it.
No, we just grow up and ourlungs grow with us and we may
have less symptoms because we'rebetter at preventing germs I'm
a germaphobe, where it could bebetter at preventing ways of
getting sick.
That's a big one.
You have to say, oh, it's justanxiety, it's all in your head,
(11:50):
you just take some deep breathsand you'll just be fighting.
No, it's actually in my lungs,but thanks for that.
Another one is people withasthma shouldn't do sports.
They need to just be on thechess club in school.
Well, no, we want your heartstrong, we want your lungs
strong.
And if you look at the Olympicathletes, the most common
disease among athletes Olympicathletes is asthma, if they're
(12:11):
competing at that they'recompeting at that global level
at the highest amount of theirsport.
Well, I can go for a walk aroundthe block or I can go for a
bike ride.
All my kids do sports and ifyou have exercise-induced asthma
, sometimes your doctor willhave you pre-medicate, they'll
have you use your albuterolinhaler, say, 20 minutes
beforehand, and so there's a lotyou can do.
(12:34):
But absolutely, sports are good.
Some people say, hey, I don'twant to use my inhalers because
they're addictive and I'll neverbe able to get off it and
they're going to stop workingover time.
My body's going to build up adefense.
Also, not true.
We talk about the inhaledcorticosteroids that a lot of
people use to control theirasthma.
Think of it as ananti-inflammatory.
(12:54):
It's keeping that swelling downin your lungs and that's the
number one thing people don'tunderstand about asthma.
Asthma, it is disease ofinflammation.
Your lungs swell and every timethey swell they're going to
build up scar tissue.
People that are not treatingtheir asthma over time can
actually go on to develop COPD.
So if you imagine you'reinjuring the same place on your
(13:17):
body you got that covered doorthat sticks out, or that part on
your island, you come aroundthe corner, you're always
hitting your hip on it.
Well, after a while you'regoing to build up scar tissue
there because that's a repeatedassault on the body.
That's what happens with asthma.
So really preventing that fromhappening and keeping that
swelling down in your lung, itcan lower the amount of asthma
attacks you're having.
(13:37):
It can help keep you out of thehospital.
That's an important one.
They're not addictive.
They don't stop working.
Another one is people say what?
I'm not hearing any wheezing.
Oh well, you can't be having anasthma flare because you're not
wheezing.
We don't all wheeze.
I can't wheeze to save my life,my daughter, I the room.
(13:59):
So if I end up in the ER, whichwe get the California fires all
the time, we get smoke fromthem all the time.
In my state ended back up inthe ER and then they're just
like you know, you're notwheezing.
I couldn't even speak.
So I had to have my husband sayyou know what.
She really knows what she'stalking about.
She's certified in asthma.
She doesn't wheeze.
She never has wheeze.
I have cough variant asthma, soyou can't always look for that.
That's another one of thosemyths that oh, they're not
wheezing so it's got to besomething else.
(14:20):
Those are some misconceptionsabout asthma.
I would say I'm in the RockyMountains in Salt Lake City,
utah, right outside all thebeautiful ski resorts.
It's a gorgeous place.
We have really horrible airquality right now.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
It's notoriously bad in.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
January.
In fact, I believe it's eithera red or orange air quality day.
Right now it's yellow, thehealth warning's yellow, and
that's from the fires in LA.
This is from our inversions.
So how do you plan yourday-to-day?
I had two grown kids that movedback home.
(14:56):
If they want to go out, they goto the gym, they go to the
local rec center to run and doall that type of stuff.
We really don't go out.
We make sure that we alwayshave the recirculating air set
on the cars when we go out.
When the air quality is reallybad like this, we also make sure
that we're changing the airfilter, the cabin filter for the
car.
So most people think, oh, youmean the cabin filter on the oil
(15:17):
?
No, no, no, it isn't the airfilter on the engine.
There's an air filter rightbehind the glove box and it
filters the air that comes intothe car.
So that needs to be changedvery frequently too if you're
driving around a lot with thisinversion.
So sometimes they don't allowthe kids to go out to recess on
really bad inversion daysbecause it can be that dangerous
for them.
Little kids breathe faster,they have a faster respiratory
(15:39):
rate, they're outside more thanadults, so they can really have
a lot of lung problems from this.
They're outside a lot, sothat's just part of where we
live.
We live at the bottom of a bowland all the air pollution is
trapped and we have thatinversion.
If you go up above that, you goup to Park City and go up to
some of the ski resorts, it'scrystal clear and blue,
beautiful skies, and then youcome down into this smog and
(16:00):
this gunk.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
Congratulations on winning the Asthma Home Visit
Program.
You won in 2022 the EPA theEnvironmental Leadership and
Asthma Management Award.
Can you tell us more about theprogram and its impact on
families?
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Yes, it was our statewide program.
I ran the program in my county.
I have about 750,000 people andwe cover about 2,400 square
miles.
I did all that driving aroundand visit people.
Our program was grant fundedfrom the state health department
.
It's the funding from the CDC.
It doesn't cost people anything, because it was only me for
(16:38):
750,000 people.
I could only help the peoplethat had the most severe asthma
or uncontrolled asthma.
So we would get referrals fromthe hospital, from emergency
rooms, from pediatricians, andwe would help those people.
And one thing I know, goingback 25 years ago when my son
was diagnosed, is you're just adeer in the headlight in the
hospital when you get adiagnosis.
(16:59):
You don't know up from down,and so when these people are
discharged and they're in theirhome and they're comfortable
because they're in theirfamiliar surroundings, it's
easier for them to learn and toremember what you're telling
them.
So these home visit programsare really important and they
may hear a tenth of what thedoctor told them with the
pediatrician or whoever they'regoing to go see.
(17:20):
So what we would do is we wouldgo into the home and I would
also offer visits after hoursbecause they don't want people
to miss work, because when youhave asthma and you're taking a
lot of sick days, I don't wantanybody their job to be in
jeopardy because I had them meetme there for two hours at their
house.
I would also offer to comeafter hours or, on a Saturday,
(17:40):
go into their home and we wouldteach them basics.
Asthma symptoms, emergencysymptoms, say.
Here's what normally happensduring an asthma check.
However, if these things starthappening, this is when I need
to go to the emergency room.
We would talk about asthmatriggers.
What are some of those thingsthat are going to set off your
asthma, and people just didn'trealize how the environment,
things around them, could affecttheir asthma.
We would talk to them aboutdifferent types of inhalers.
(18:03):
So, okay, let's put a stickeron this one.
This is one you're going totake every day.
I'm going to put a littlesticker on the back that has a
calendar, so that reminds youthat you're going to take that
every morning and every night,like your doctor's asked you to
this one over here years.
When you're having a little bitof that little tickle in the
straw, you start coughing, youcan use that inhaler and have a
little sticker of that of alittle kid coughing, because
(18:26):
most people really mix up theirinhalers, which one they use.
And then there's differenttypes of inhaler.
There's dry powder inhalers,meter dose inhalers and soft
mist inhalers.
All three of those are going tobe taken differently.
So go through all those and Ihave them.
Show me Now.
Just show me.
Pretend I'm not here.
Then you're just going to useyour inhaler for the day.
Show me how you would normallyuse that.
Remember I'm over here and Iwould show them a video with
proper inhaler technique and I'dsay okay, now tell me if you
(18:47):
notice anything different onthis video or anything else you
do differently.
If they couldn't remember ordidn't notice, then I would pick
it out.
Okay, just remember you got toshake that first, because it's
like an aerosol.
Make sure you shake that first,or make sure you breathe out
all the way first, then bringthe inhaler over.
So, whatever it is, we wouldcorrect their inhaler technique.
Then we'd have them teach itback to us.
No-transcript.
(19:27):
Outside of the pool noodle andthen there's a little bit of
saran wrap in the middle.
I said, okay, now try breathingthrough that.
That's what we have to try tobreathe through when we're
having an asthma attack or anasthma flare.
Look at this big piece of thispaper towel tube.
Look how big that is in themiddle, nothing causing problems
.
You can breathe right throughthat.
I would always say, if youremember nothing else about
today, you do not want to be apool noodle, and they would
(19:49):
laugh, but it would help themremember.
Yeah, I got to keep thatslowing down in my lungs.
So we do that on the firstvisit.
The second visit we come backand we teach them how to make
their house allergy and asthmafriendly In cleaning supplies.
I would write another grant tobe able to get cleaning supplies
for them and actually teachthem how to clean.
You would think that peopleknow how to clean their house,
but you got to do things alittle bit differently with
(20:11):
allergies and asthma, to makesure that you're getting rid of
dust, you're getting rid of moldand some things that wouldn't
maybe bother some of the otherpeople, helping them feel like,
instead of being a victim ofthat disease, that they, hey,
you know what.
I can do something to make surethat I'm not having so many bad
days and I'm not ending up inthe emergency room.
The stats for this and this isone of the reasons we won the
(20:33):
award we reduced people thatended up in the hospital that
participated in our program.
We reduced that by 87% yes, 87.
Visits to the ER decreased by75%.
People taking prednisone, as welike to call it, satan's little
tic-tacs, because you get alittle crazy when you're on it.
(20:53):
We were able to cut that inhalf for the people
participating in our program.
People missing remember Italked about missing work days
we decreased that 80%.
And kids missing school wedecreased that by 51%.
So really we're helping thesepeople have a better quality of
life.
They don't have all thesemedical bills.
I think it was for every $1that we would spend in the
(21:13):
program going out and visit them, we were saving.
I believe it was $3 in medicalcosts to the insurance companies
.
These programs are all over thecountry.
A lot of the public healthdepartments have them.
Some hospitals even have theseasthma home visit programs, if
you're interested.
I know a lot of people go ohhoney, I have had asthma all
these years.
I got to teach you a thing ortwo, and usually they don't know
as much as they think they door they're missing things, and
(21:37):
so really these programs arefantastic.
I can't rave about them enough.
So check and see if there's onein your area that is so helpful
.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
I think a lot of people this would never even
occur to me about if I'mcleaning my house well enough or
properly enough.
Am I forgetting something?
I've got cats, so of course I'mhypersensitive to.
When I'm having guests I haveto warn them about my cats.
But I have a friend that comesto visit and she's allergic.
So this room is off, it'squarantined.
There's things we don't thinkabout, like curtains, window
(22:07):
blinds Huh, what do you?
Speaker 2 (22:09):
recommend.
I have been looking at rightnow at my bay window at these
beautiful plantation shutters.
They're the worst for asthma.
I don't know about all of you,but that is not on my list of
to-do things.
By the end of the day I am tootired, but I'm not sleeping
under these.
So it's okay If you havesomething like that over your
bed or those two-inch woodblinds.
The horizontal areas are goingto trap dust, making sure that
(22:31):
you're cleaning those a lot orswitching to something else.
What we did in my daughter'sroom because she was extra
sensitive to dust is we had justthe Roman shades.
They would just roll up duringthe day.
It's that vertical surface.
None of the dust will stick toit.
And then we'd roll it down andwe had little shears underneath
that.
I made sure that all thecurtains we can have washed.
My in-laws had a vacation homeand you know how they would nail
(22:53):
those curtains up to the wall.
Those had not been washed in 30years.
So make sure you're washing yourcurtains, cleaning the blinds,
your vacuum at least once a weekwith a HEPA vacuum and make
sure that you are vacuumingunder the beds.
Everybody forgets that, but ourasthma specialist did not let
us store anything under the beds, because think about the last
time you actually gave a goodcleaning under your bed.
Usually when you move, whichfor me is like every 13 years or
(23:16):
something like that If you areshort on storage and you do need
to put things under the bed,they do make really low, narrow
bins that you can get you canslide underneath.
Make sure when you're vacuumingevery single week, pull those
out, vacuum underneath it, wipeoff the top of that lid with the
microfiber cloth and make sureyou're keeping that dust down In
(23:36):
bathrooms.
Make sure that you're runningthe exhaust fan the entire time
you're showering and anadditional 15 minutes and that's
really going to pull thatmoisture out of that room.
Another thing to look for I loveinterior design shows,
obviously, because that's my jam.
I see this fantastic howthey're tiling the bathrooms.
Well, 10 years, 15 years downthe road, you're going to have
cracked grout.
You're going to have missinggrout, you're going to have
(23:57):
missing grout and that can causeblack mold to grow all behind
your wall.
Ask me how.
I know Happened in my lasthouse.
Sometimes a shower surroundmight be a better option.
They've changed over the years.
They used to be really uglywhen I was younger.
Now they make them.
I have one upstairs and itlooks like white subway tile.
You can get them, so they looklike good marble, not like the
kind of marble that they used tomake.
(24:18):
So water intrusion is really aproblem for a lot of people and
I don't know if you've everheard of water meters or little
water alarms.
You can get inexpensive wateralarms from the hardware store.
You can put those by your waterheater.
When those go out, those go outand you've got 50 gallons
flooding your basement, which wealso had happen.
You can put them behind yourwashing machine if it leaks.
(24:40):
You can put them by toilets ifthey leak.
They have some that are reallyinexpensive and they will do a
really high decibel sound thatwill wake up the entire
neighborhood, or they even haveversions you can connect to your
phones While you're travelingon vacation.
It can alert you.
If you're at work, you'retraveling, it will let you know
that something's leaking.
So there's a lot of preventionthat goes on with that we talk
(25:04):
about.
You don't want little crittersin your house, so making sure
that you take away their foodand water source is really
important.
Washing the dishes beforeyou're going to bed, wiping down
the countertops, getting thoseteenagers or college kids,
whoever's at home, making surethat you're using chip clips,
making sure that things arestored in Tupperware containers.
Take that trash out.
You don't want that smell,bringing in the mice and roaches
and that type of thing.
I could go on forever.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
Managing asthma as a family can be challenging, but
what advice would you give toparents that are raising
children with asthma andallergies?
Speaker 2 (25:34):
You know, this is a lifelong disease and this is not
going to be a sprint, this isgoing to be a marathon.
Trying to involve the familymembers.
When one of my kids would be inthe hospital, we'd go down and
every Friday night we had pizzaand movie night.
Well, we'd go to the hospitaland have pizza and movie night
and then we would have the otherkids help out.
Hey, can you go grab thenebulizer for me?
Can you grab a vial ofalbuterol?
(25:55):
Can you go get the oximeter?
We need to stick that on hisfinger.
So getting everybody involved,because I wasn't always going to
be there and everybody needs toknow how to respond in an
emergency if someone was introuble.
There was a time I was outsitting up for a garden party in
my backyard.
I don't know what set me off.
I was coughing so hard and,andy, I don't know if you've
ever done this, where you'recoughing so hard, you're trying
(26:15):
to throw up, you've got a reallybad asthma attack.
I came into the house and I wasjust shaking and I was trying
to get the nebulizer.
My son just swooped in behindme, grabbed the nebulizer, put
the outbeater on, put the kittogether, put it on, turned it
on and handed it to me, and Ineeded that right then because I
was doubled over on my kneestrying not to throw up.
So having everybody in thefamily know how to help with
(26:40):
whatever disease it is If it'swith diabetes, have them know
how to check your blood sugarand how to be able to give you
your insulin.
If it's with any other disease,whatever that is, everybody in
the family needs to know how totreat that and let everybody
know.
Sorry, I haven't spent that muchtime with you this week.
You know, maybe we can go outto lunch on the weekend or
something, because other kidsare going to get left out when
one kid's in the hospital.
That can be a problem.
(27:01):
And then don't be afraid to askfor help.
If you need somebody to helptake your carpool shift, if you
need somebody to run your kidsto soccer, if you need people to
bring in meals when people arelike, oh, if there's anything I
can do, just let me know.
I could really use a meal.
Tonight.
I haven't gone to the grocerystore.
I am so tired of starting amigraine, whatever it is.
You know people do want to help, so give them something
(27:23):
concrete to do, and then we usea lot of humor in our family.
So we're, yeah, we're always.
And I know, jenny, you loveAladdin, so we'll quote lines
from Disney movies, and with theone with the little penguins I
just forgot the name of it wherethey with Alex the lion,
(27:44):
madagascar thank you.
The penguins when they get tothe wrong place they go.
Well, this sucks.
You know my daughter wouldquote that.
We'd quote other movies.
Try to have some fun with it,because you're either going to
laugh or cry.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
But you know laughing doesn't give me a headache when
it comes to things like toysaround the house.
Do you need to wash them often?
Do you need to limit?
How often Do you need to limithow many are around?
Speaker 2 (28:08):
Yeah, yes, that's what we would tell people.
Make sure that you're washingthe bedding on your bed once a
week, everything on the bed.
And for most people I would say, when was the last time you
washed your bedding?
And people would say, I don'tknow.
If you can't remember, go washit.
If you're listening to thispodcast, put your laundry in if
you can't remember.
And then we would always set aday of the week.
We've got a house full of kidswhen they were younger, so
(28:28):
everybody would have a day ofthe week.
So every Friday my husbandworked 410.
So Friday morning you'd go popthe laundry in.
So once a week is best practicefor washing your bedding.
Obviously, dry it.
I don't know if people areliving in different climates.
Really, drying it outside andhanging it on the clothesline is
the worst possible thing youcould do.
If you have allergies, thatpollen is going to stick to that
wet fabrics.
(28:48):
If you can use a dryer, that'sreally the best thing to do.
And then we would limit thestuffed animals for our kids.
Grandma would always give themsomething for their birthday and
Christmas and any other reason,because they were so cute.
We'd limit it.
We'd say, okay, well, you canput two of your favorite
stuffies on your bed.
The rest were in a bin coveredup with the lid on.
Then about once a month we'dalso wash and dry the stuffed
animals too.
Sometimes that can affect thefur.
(29:10):
Sometimes you can put them in alingerie bag or a pillowcase
and then pin that over the topand put safety pins all along
the top of it, and then itdoesn't get as much agitation,
but making sure that that roomis really clean.
Also, you can use air cleanersin the rooms.
We swear by air cleaners.
We have them in each of thebedrooms, so that can really
help too.
But yeah, good question aboutthe stuffed animals.
(29:30):
Those are a magnet for dust.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
This is helpful because, even though I don't
have asthma, we all have companyover at some point and you want
to make sure that you arethinking ahead and being
respectful for guests.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
That's what you can do in your living room.
If you have a vacuum if youhave a canister vacuum or
regular vacuum with theattachment on it you can vacuum
off the couch, because cat hairsticks to everything we all know
that.
Or you can use a lint roller.
There are some sprays out therethat are low odor, that are
allergy and asthma friendly,that reduce allergen.
You can give the couch a quickspritz or the carpet, turn on
(30:02):
the ceiling fan, make sure allthat airs out before your guest
gets there, and a lot of thingsthat I would do.
If I would go to a house for anasthma home visit and I would
pull up to the house and theyard was just a mess, I knew the
inside was going to look thatway too, I would just
pre-medicate.
I'd use my albuterol before I'dgo in.
If I go to a friend's housethat has dogs, I'm also allergic
(30:22):
to dogs, so I just use my nailart before I go.
I'm just knowing.
You know I may need to use itagain when I get in there, but
there's things we can do to kindof preempt it for us as well.
Speaker 3 (30:31):
And things like ceiling fans too.
Make sure you're cleaning thedust off of those.
Those get nasty.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
I actually created a graphic for that on my socials
of things that people might notthink about.
So and think your computerscreen here.
It just sucks that, dust your.
So and think your computerscreen here it just sucks that.
Dust your big screen TV.
Make sure that you're usingsomething.
I grew up using the featherdusters.
Those things were useless.
Now they have dusters that thedust will actually stick to, so
being able to go all throughoutthe house and we do, we do the
(30:57):
fans do.
On top of.
Well, if people are still usingVCRs or DVD players, or maybe
your router TV screens, anythinglike that, make sure you're
dusting all of that as well.
Good suggestion.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
Get it off, don't just move it around.
Exactly Now, you've also beeninvolved in asthma education at
the global level.
How do approaches to asthmamanagement differ across
cultures, and what lessons haveyou learned from working
internationally?
Speaker 2 (31:25):
A lot of the asthma inhalers can have different
names in different countries.
I can't say, for instance, Ineed to use my reliever inhaler
here, it's albuterol.
Here in the US, well, in the UKit's salbuterol.
So there's going to bedifferent names.
We can't go by names becauseevery country is going to call
things differently.
We need to just say theanti-inflammatory or the one
(31:47):
that you're going to take everymorning and every night, and
then this one is when you'rehaving symptoms.
You can go ahead and take it.
I think that's important inoffering resources in the
countries where they live.
So not everybody lives in theUS that goes through my socials
or follows my blog or anythinglike that.
I'll share resources fromAustralia or England or
something from India, and somaking sure they have resources
(32:09):
in their country and thenknowing that things that I may
share in the US may not apply toother countries because our
healthcare system is different.
We may pay significantly morefor inhalers here than they do
in other countries, and I knowCongress had addressed that, and
three out of the four inhalercompanies have actually lowered
their co-pays to $35.
One did not.
My inhaler is one of thosethat's still quite expensive.
(32:31):
I have to not only useinsurance, but then I have to
download a coupon and use acoupon every year to be able to
get that extra $50 off.
I think that things are goingto be different in all the
different countries and you'reright when it comes to different
customs and things in differentcountries.
So for some cultures having achihuahua, they believe that
that will absorb all of thediseases in the home.
(32:52):
But then it's also an asthmatrigger if they have asthma and
are allergic to dogs.
So how do you approach that?
I would never tell people to getrid of their pets.
I was on an asthma home visitand went into a home and a woman
said if you're going to tell meto get rid of my dog, you can
just turn around and walk rightback out that door.
And I said oh no, I'm not oneof those kind of people, don't
worry.
But is there a way that theycan still have their pet but
(33:13):
maybe have a pet-free room forthe child to sleep in at night?
Maybe the dog isn't allowed inthe bedroom and maybe the door
stays closed and the showers?
Before they go to bed to getall the dander off, them climb
into those nice clean sheetsthat they just washed.
At the week mark.
They have their air cleaner inthere, so maybe can they have
one safe room that the pet's notallowed in.
So you have to be a little bitdelicate with different people
(33:35):
and the needs that they have.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
What resources or programs would you recommend to
families that are seeking tobetter understand and manage
asthma?
Speaker 2 (33:44):
I would go.
There's three patientorganizations that are sort of
rivals here in the US, butthere's three that are really
good and make sure that theyhave patient-friendly
information, low literacy levelfor graphics, seminars, some of
the summits all that's free, sokind of.
The three big is American LungAssociation.
They've been around for what Ithink over a hundred years or
something.
They have all sorts of videos.
(34:05):
They have an asthma basics oran asthma 101.
There's another one, asthma andAllergy Foundation of America,
afa, and then the third one isAllergy and Asthma Network.
There are the professionalorganizations, but a lot of
times that information is a lothigher literacy level and a
little bit harder for people tounderstand.
But these three seem to focusmore on basic webinars for
people to understand throughoutthe year.
(34:26):
So those are some good options,fantastic, thank you.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
First I want to say how confusing this interview has
been because we have the samename.
Every time you say her name,I'm like huh, you know where I'm
from, but you weren't talkingto me.
It has been throwing me off.
I'm not being passive orinattentive.
I'm trying not to respond tohearing my name, but I do have a
question, because we feel likewe lose things when we're told
(34:50):
that we can't have the smellgood stuff and the candles and
the perfumes and the fragrances.
What would you tell someonewho'd be diagnosed that they
have to when they have to givethese things up?
What are alternatives for themto still have a little fun and
not die of, you know,suffocation from having the
asthma?
Speaker 2 (35:09):
You know, and it could be something as simple as
trying a different perfume,because I, Andy, I don't know
about you, but patchouli oil isthe worst for me.
It will trigger an asthmaattack every time.
Every time I fly, somebody ison the plane with patchouli oil.
I fly with an N95 mask becausewhen I get COVID I'm on oxygen
(35:29):
for six months all day long, soI'm trying to avoid that.
I can even taste it through themask, so I'll premedicate.
Same thing I'll premedicatebefore I get on the plane.
If somebody you know that'stheir go-to and if that's
triggering an asthma attack forthem or family members, is there
a different type of perfumethat they could try?
A different type of perfumethat they could try?
I had a really awkwardconversation where I had to ask
the secretary at the healthdepartment where I work not to
wear her patchouli oil because Icould smell it out in the hall
(35:51):
before I even got to the office.
So is there a different type ofperfume that they can try?
With the house being a littlebit stuffy, you can actually
switch on the fan so itcirculates the air through your
house on a regular basis.
It increases those airexchanges that can help have a
little teeny, tiny candle righthere.
I'll turn it on for maybe 10,15 minutes, that's it, and then
(36:12):
it's off.
And it's not a strong scent,it's just vanilla.
You can treat yourselves everyonce in a while, but it's going
to be trial and error.
If you're trying somethingthat's giving asthma attack,
think maybe I should use adifferent scent.
I had one in the fall.
There was something that waspumpkin, way too spicy.
Threw that one away.
I can just do vanilla and itgives me a little bit of a scent
.
So we're not here to kill alltheir fun.
(36:32):
We're here to say, oh, we'lltry something else in that area
that might be a little bit saferfor you.
Speaker 5 (36:38):
My son has asthma and we lived in Kansas.
We moved here to Arizona whenhe was in second grade.
We lived in Kansas, we movedhere to Arizona when he was in
second grade and we noticed,just switching location, his
asthma started going away, butit didn't go away.
He just wasn't around all thoseallergens in the Midwest.
(37:00):
He is now starting to develophis asthma again.
It's almost like his bodyadjusted.
So he's having to learn moreabout his asthma as an adult,
because he's 25 and he hasn'treally dealt with it since he
was in elementary.
Do you have any tips orsuggestions I could share with
(37:21):
him?
We made him get rid of his cat.
He had a cat and we thoughtmaybe that has helped.
But do you have any other tipsyou could share with somebody
that is now dealing with it asan adult?
That's?
Speaker 2 (37:36):
not uncommon at all.
I remember asking my specialistI need to move.
There's somewhere I can movethat will be safer.
He said it doesn't matter whereyou live.
You will develop new allergiesto wherever you're living.
You're going to become allergicto new bushes, new trees.
So does he have allergies aswell as asthma?
Speaker 5 (37:52):
Yes, he does.
He has seasonal allergies.
Yes, Okay.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
So the biggest thing about asthma is he has the
allergic type asthma.
It's really controlling yourallergies, because that's going
to control your asthma.
So first thing that's going tostart is in the spring it's
trees.
People don't realize that treeshave pollen.
Trees are going to be yourenemy in the spring, Summer is
grass and in the fall is ragweed.
So one of the best things youcan do and I know Arizona gets
(38:20):
raging hot like we do, andsometimes you get that- nice
little breeze.
Speaker 5 (38:24):
We're actually in central Arizona.
We're kind of mild four seasons.
He's moving soon where there isno grass.
I'm hoping that might make adifference this summer for him.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
And the thing is pollen can travel, so ragweed's
the worst.
They've found it thousands ofmiles out to sea.
He may not.
Depending on where he lives,he's probably never going to
find a safe space.
One of the best things he cando is shower before he goes to
bed every night.
That's going to remove all thatpollen from his hair.
Keep the windows closed.
I don't care if there's a nicebreeze coming in.
Okay, does he have an aircleaner in his room?
Speaker 5 (39:00):
No, but that might be a Valentine's present for him.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
There you go.
The other other thing is is heon allergy medicine?
Speaker 5 (39:08):
yes, just okay.
They told him to take over thecounter.
But when it flares up, hisasthma does kick in really bad
when he gets any type of a chestcold and that's how it all
started was he had rsv as a.
He was about a year and a halfand and that's when the asthma
started, but it got worse as theseason changed in Kansas.
Speaker 2 (39:30):
And now it's starting back up, and that's the thing
is what we talked about asthmabeing a disease of inflammation
is making sure that he's on theright medicine for his body and
for his type of asthma.
So does he take a dailycontroller inhaler right now?
Speaker 5 (39:44):
Yes, and I couldn't tell you the name, because he
buys it and he doesn't live withus anymore, but he has a rescue
one, and a daily one, okay,sometimes people aren't great
about taking a daily inhalerbecause you woke up late, you're
late for work.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
And when we started our asthma home visit program,
it was set up to say how manydays a week are you taking your
inhaler?
I'm like no, no, no, no, that'snot going to cut it, because I
heard a doctor at an asthmaconference and he said the best
way to say is about how manydays a week do you remember to
take it?
Because most people only taketheir inhaler two or three days
a week and they'll say, well, Itake mine four days a week.
(40:19):
Then you have the real number,because they're not telling you
seven to please you.
You're getting to what's reallygoing on.
There are some people saywhat's the barrier and what's
going on there?
Can they afford the controllerinhaler they need to take every
morning and night?
Do they need to pair it withanother activity?
Are they brushing their teethevery morning and every night?
Speaker 5 (40:35):
Let's hope, because sometimes guys can be guys.
Speaker 2 (40:39):
Can you put it near his toothbrush?
There have been some teenagers.
And what do you do everymorning?
Well, I go to school.
What do you do before you go toschool?
I put my sneakers on.
They put their inhaler in theirsneakers, so they can't go to
school until they use theirinhalers.
It's pairing it with anotheractivity and it's helping him
understand why my thing is Iwant to do that.
Well, why?
Why do I have to take this?
(40:59):
So, once I understood thatthat's keeping that swelling
down down in the lungs Rememberthat pool noodle.
If you're a pool noodle and youget a cold on top of that, or
you get COVID on top of that, orthe flu or anything else,
you're going to end up in the ER, you're going to end up in the
hospital and you're going to besick for a long time.
It takes a long time, once thatswelling's there, to get that
swelling down in the lungs,because the lungs do not like to
be bothered.
So preventing that fromhappening in the first place can
(41:20):
be really helpful.
They helpful, they did come outwith that.
There's a new treatment they use.
Oh, there's new guidelines thatthey use and it's called um
smart therapy and you use thesame inhaler as your reliever
inhaler as you do as yourcontroller inhaler.
Some people are like, look, I'mnot going to use it every day,
I'm not going to remember I gotstuff going on in my life.
It's just too much so for him.
(41:41):
Instead of um, this inhalerthat I have is just albuterol
there.
There's a newer one which Ican't get to right now because
it's upstairs.
It's a combination of albuteroland it has that little
anti-inflammatory in it.
So if he's having asthmaattacks during the week and this
new medication has been outjust over a year it was
available forever in Europe andit's called Air Supra, it's all
one word.
(42:01):
So it has albuterol in it andit has a little bit of the
anti-inflammatory as well.
So every time if he's having aflare-up and he's going to use
his albuterol, he's going to geta little kick of that
anti-inflammatory.
There's two controller inhalerson the market that you can use
every day and then you can alsouse when you're having an asthma
attack, and that's Dulera andSimbacort.
Both of them have a medicine incalled F motor all.
(42:23):
If you look at graphs of howalbuterol works and how from
motor all works, they'reidentical.
It works just as fast asalbuterol, but it lasts longer.
So those two medications,studies have shown um I'm not
all throughout the world andhere in the us that people can
use those if they don't want touse it.
Say, he remembers to take hissimbacort or his dual air twice
a week.
Then he can use the same onefor his reliever inhaler,
(42:46):
because some people don't likecarrying around two inhalers.
Speaker 5 (42:48):
That might be a barrier that he's dealing with,
but I like the noodle example,because I think he will
understand that a little better.
Speaker 2 (42:58):
He's a boy, you know, and a lot of times I have two
boys and a girl.
How like I have two boys and agirl.
How kids are, let's see how oldare they?
30 at 25, and you know theydon't like to be different.
So this, these are what I woulduse.
Okay, if you can see thosethere.
So this is a paper towel tube.
I just put craft paper aroundthe outside to mimic the color
(43:19):
of the pool little.
You go to the dollar store andget those latex rubber bands.
You could see this how thebands are just pulling in around
that when you have an asthmaattack.
These bands, they're smoothmuscles and they tighten and
they shorten and they justsqueeze from the outside.
You got all that swelling goingon from the inside.
Look at that versus the poolnoodle.
Let me flip them around andthen what little room is left?
(43:40):
There's my little saran wrap.
So try breathing through thatversus this.
So try breathing through thatversus this.
So having them just understand.
You know you're going to have abetter quality of life if you
can really prevent havingproblems in the first place
going on with the lungs.
I mean, most people don't wantto hear that.
You know, 20 years down theroad they're going to be on
oxygen because they did controltheir asthma and it transitioned
to COPD.
They don't care.
That's far down the road.
They don't care.
(44:00):
But you can ask them is thereanything that you can do now
that you want to do that youfeel like you can't do because
of asthma?
He might say, well, I can'tplay basketball with my buddies
because I'm really short ofbreath or you know, whatever it
is he likes to do, and you cansay you know, humor me what
would happen if you tried usingyour inhaler, say like every day
for two weeks, like morning andnight, like the doctor wanted
(44:20):
you to, just curious to see ifyou feel like you don't have to
use your reliever inhaler asmuch, if you can keep up with
your buddies in basketball orskateboarding, whatever he likes
to do.
So sometimes, if you phrase itthat way, like fine, I'll try it
.
You know that I follow up withthem in two weeks they're like I
didn't use my inhaler in twoweeks.
That never happens Sometimesyou can try and approach
(44:40):
something like that, thank youso much.
Speaker 5 (44:47):
Those were great tips to help him.
As adults, they think they'rean adult, but I love the
examples, so I appreciate it.
Thank you, you're welcome.
I understand.
Speaker 4 (44:53):
I love having like a physical object to explain it
and it kind of like helps peoplesee it.
So like how we were talkingabout medicine shamers.
If you had that to show amedicine shamer, they would be
like oh right, yeah, Okay,they're going to need medication
to help with inflammation.
I wish I had a pool noodle andsomething to explain what my
joint is like.
Speaker 2 (45:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (45:10):
Because, I have rheumatoid arthritis.
Speaker 4 (45:12):
Those who are like do you need medication Because
it's an invisible illness and soit's visible.
Speaker 2 (45:16):
We can't see it To have something physical helps
the professional model, and thisone shows what happens.
But most people are like whateven is that?
So I've come up as a designerbeing creative.
Let's come up with something alittle bit more creative.
So this they understand.
I would go to the dollar storeevery spring and I would buy
these out of pocket, pay with itfor my own money.
(45:37):
I would make sets of these forall of our school nurses.
In other places they'reemployed by the schools, but
they were employed by the healthdepartments.
Give them a set of these everyyear.
You always have a whole bunchof new nurses.
I put a little flyer in thereabout the asthma home visit
program.
I'm like.
These are latex-free.
You can teach students aboutwhat happens and why it's
important for them to use theirinhaler.
This costs almost nothing.
Speaker 3 (46:09):
But yes, I wish we had something for could think of
a physical way to show peoplewhat it is that we're all
feeling, even though they can'tsee it.
Speaker 2 (46:15):
Yeah, hope you can come up with something.
I'll have to think that wouldbe really interesting to show
what happens with RA.
Speaker 3 (46:21):
I appreciate your time so much.
This was so helpful, thank you.
Speaker 2 (46:26):
Thank you everyone.
I hope this helps people thatare listening.
You can live a good quality oflife with asthma.
Just get on the rightmedication for your body, for
your type of asthma.
If you don't like the inhaler,go back to your doctor.
There's a whole rainbow ofoptions of inhalers on the
market.
If you don't like your using,go back and say is there
something else?
I just don't like this one.
There's injectables that theyuse now to control asthma.
(46:46):
There's a lot out there.
Don't give up.
Keep trying until you findsomething that works for you and
works for your body.
Speaker 4 (46:51):
And thank you all, for all you do because you're
helping so many people.
Speaker 3 (46:55):
All right, everyone.
Until next time.
Don't forget your spoon.
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