How My Daughter was Diagnosed with Asthma

When my daughter was one, she had her first incident of croup. I woke to a whistling noise, and it was her, trying to breathe.

She was hospitalized at the time, as it was at a dangerous point. They told me it was somewhat common at such a young age, and that she should grow out of this kind of thing by the age of 4 or 5.

Three years later, by the age of 4, we started the panic again, but this time on a regular basis. She was waking up in the middle of the night, struggling to breathe. So, I'd bundle her and the baby up at 2 or 4 am, and off to the Emergency Room we'd go for a breathing treatment and a course of steroids.

I remember thinking how hard it was. I was freshly divorced, and working a part time job to support the three of us. I was exhausted from our middle of the night trips. I didn't understand why she was having so many croup incidents when she was supposed to have grown out of them. I thought, certainly this would be easier if she were older, and if I had someone to share the worry with.

When she was five, she woke me up one night, waving her arms in the air. Her airway had completely closed up. I called 911 in a panic. I was so terrified that I was going to lose her. Thankfully, before the call was over, she was getting a little bit of air. After the paramedics left, I bundled us up and headed to town for another Emergency Room visit.

I finally decided it was time for our pediatrician to figure out why she was having croup so often. After talking and checking her out, he felt it was asthma. Ding! Why did it take this long, and why hadn't the ER staff suggested this as a possibility? You'd think they would have at least touched on the idea... Who knows, maybe they just looked forward to our 2am visits.

After referrals and tests, she was formally diagnosed with asthma. Though I felt bad she had this to deal with, I felt a bit empowered by that little inhaler. I could actually come to my daughter's aid when she was having breathing issues. I felt that we'd have less or maybe even no more middle-of-the-night Emergency Room visits.