AsthmaPersonal stories: Faces of asthma
Faces of Asthma - Katie
Katie is helping The Lung Association because she doesn't want other children to be afraid.
When you look at Katie, you don't see a "sick" child. When you hear about her great ability to play hockey or soccer, you don't hear about the medications she has to take several times a day so she can play. When you know about her good marks in school, you don't know about the war going on inside her body.
Katie has asthma and what you don't see, hear about, or know is that her life can be a daily struggle. She has to battle for what most children take for granted - to be able to breathe. There are times when each breath is a struggle and being afraid is normal. And Katie is not alone, because 1 in 5 school-aged children on PEI have asthma.
At The Lung Association, we see how sick a child can become. We see that more than half of the children with asthma on PEI miss time from school because they are too sick to go. We see the children who have suffered only a few asthma flare-ups over the last year, and we see the children who have had more than 50! Imagine having 4 or 5 episodes a month where you felt like you were smothering or choking.
As Katie says, "It's like having a pencil in my throat. I know what an asthma attack is like and I want other children to know that you just have to breathe slow and let the medication do its work."
We hear about the dramatic changes that families have to make to their homes – to eliminate asthma triggers; their finances – to pay for medications that range from $125 to $300 each month; their daily lives – where the whole family must learn about a complex health problem to prevent it from getting worse. Living with asthma is definitely a family affair. Time is spent renovating the home to make it safer for sensitive lungs. There are trips to the doctor's office and to the hospital. And when suddenly, someone in the home can't breathe – everything stops – because when you can't breathe, nothing else matters.
It's hard for a family to keep up the pace to keep difficult asthma under control. In Katie's case, hers is a difficult pace to keep up. She is doing her part – taking her medications (even when she sometimes wishes she didn't have to), avoiding her asthma triggers (like not being able to have a cat), and being an amazing athlete (even though there are times when her chest hurts a lot.) This past summer, she started golf lessons and had the chance to meet PEI's number one lady golfer, Lori Kane. Does it all make a difference? When we asked Katie this question, her answer included this example. Some winters I miss at least 14 days of school. This year, I've missed only three so far." She also said, "My greatest love is hockey and this year I am playing on a Pee Wee Double A team."
For Katie, it's all about being able to be a regular, active kid who loves to play sports. For her mother and father, they say "It's been months since Katie had a severe asthma attack – touch wood." We did have quite a scare back in November, when Katie had a bout of mycoplasma pneumonia. It breaks your heart to watch your child struggle for her breath."
|
