Asthma Attack

Avaree was diagnosed with Allergy Induced Asthma in December of 2008. She's been on allergy medicine since she was 6 months old. She's never really had any wheezing but Thursday afternoon, she fell asleep in the car on the way home and I noticed she was wheezing. As soon as we got home, I gave her her albuterol inhaler (her rescue inhaler for when she's coughing or wheezing) and it seemed to go away. Later that night, she woke up complaining that her chest was hurting and it felt tight, she was also wheezing again. We did her inhaler again and she went back to sleep. She woke up several more times during the night crying that her stomach hurt and was still wheezing. Her heart was racing and I woke James up (since he has asthma) and he got the steamer out and made her breathe in the steam. She didn't like that at all but it did help. I looked at her "Asthma Action Plan" and it said she could do her rescue inhaler 3 times in five minute intervals, rather than every 4 hours as usual since her symptoms weren't going away. We did that and she went back to sleep. Her "Asthma Action Plan" says to call for steroids if symptoms get better or take her to the emergency room if they do not. I kept debating on whether or not to take her, and I figured I would wait and see how she felt when she woke up. I kept close watch on her. When it was time to wake up for school, she seemed to be feeling ok and she said she was better so I took her to school. They ended up calling me about 11:30 saying she was sick to her stomach. I picked her up and she had a stomachache the rest of the day but she didn't have anymore breathing problems. I called her allergy doctor and she called her in some oral steroids to take for five days. I'm still not sure why her stomach was hurting so bad. I thought it may be because she was trying so hard to breathe, but I don't know! This was her first time dealing with asthma and I hope it's the last. It was really scary for all of us.