Asthmagirl

I grew up in remote Alaska, and ended up as you might expect being an avid reader and a bit of a loner.
In the years to follow, I grew up and married and we had three beautiful daughters. Our youngest daughter is mildly autistic which is rather a crash course in everything you though you knew about parenting but now must figure out for real. In the course of raising her and her sisters, I left the corporate world and went to work for a non profit that serves people with developmental disabilities. I guess it’s one of those things they call destiny. I now write grants for the agency, handle fundraising and PR and juggle my favorite role, network administrator.

During that transition, I developed my own disability which changed pretty much everything about my life and gave me additional insight into disability work.

Although most people don’t think of Asthma as a disability, it is a chronic disease with no cure. Imagine getting a cold, then bronchitis then going back to the doctor because you still can’t breathe. You end up taking steroids (hello weight gain) and using and discarding inhalers until you find one that works. Your airway becomes hypersensitive. Your biggest changes involve throwing away your perfumes, lotions and candles and changing your hair care products. Even finding cleaning agents you can use is a challenge.
A simple bike ride requires additional medication and hikes above 5000 feet are no longer realistic. You now get email air quality alerts so you can plan ahead. Your beloved develops new pet names for you like “lunger” (my favorite) and “wheezer” (I’m a rock band!).

Throw in three daughters, two son in laws (almost), three dogs, three cats, two jobs and a husband. Top it off with a healthy does of denial, an overdeveloped sense of competitiveness and a charming inability to accept your limitations. I still do things the asthma thinks I shouldn’t because I lived so many years without it. That and I don’t do well with limitations. Go big or go home, right? Right?