Welcome to my stop on the Charity Sunday blog hop. This is a monthly blog hop founded by author Lisabet Sarai at her blog, Beyond Romance. The idea is to support a charity, or non-profit. For each comment other than mine on this post, over the next 30 days, I will donate $2 per comment (excluding my own) to the national organization, the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. As anyone who follows me knows, I live with both moderately severe allergies and severe chronic asthma. Both have impacted my life in major ways, especially the asthma, and the food and the drug allergies. I do not recommend being allergic to 3 major antibiotics. Talk about a hassle with life-threatening consequences!
Both of these conditions affect millions of people and costs billions of dollars in medicines, medical treatments, and missed time at work and school. And of course, they can kill. They affect infants, young children, teens, adults, all ages. No one is immune; both allergies and asthma can develop at anytime in one's life. Adult onset, particularly asthma, is typically more severe. And by the way, you may have heard that children can outgrow their asthma as adults? That is a fallacy. Asthma is a chronic disease that is believed to have an underlying chronic infection. The symptoms may go into remission but the physical causes and defects still exist.
Between the allergies and the asthma, I have missed months, yes, months, of work over the past 25+ years. In fact, I've probably missed at least a solid 12 months of work when I add up all of my missed time. The AAFA helps by providing a website and newsletter packed with information and advice, as well as working seemingly non-stop as advocates. They work to make schools and workplaces safer,and to ensure that both allergy and asthma sufferers (you can have one without the other or you can have both simultaneously) are fairly treated by employers. For instance, the AAFA has worked to ensure that schools don't deny students access to inhalers or epi-pens. Many school policies don't allow students to carry medicine on them. That may work for some some types of medicines but epi-pens and certain inhalers are rescue medications. Keeping them locked up in the school office or nurse's office reduces the chance the student will receive the medicine in a timely fashion. As a result, students have ended up in the ER when they couldn't receive their medicine in time, and some have died.
The AAFA also conducts and sponsors research, has community programs, and does outreach. As I mentioned earlier, I find it a great resource. If you are ever writing a story that has someone with either allergies or asthma, the AAFA will provide the information you need to write an accurate representation. Deity knows, most fiction books, TV shows, and movies get them wrong. It's a never-ending source of aggravation for me.
Do you have allergies or asthma? What or who is your go-to resource?
Gosh, Bea, I can't imagine being allergic to antibiotics--that's trulyu frightening! And I've known enough people with asthma to know how awaful attacks can be. The AAFA is a great place to make a contribution!
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteHello, Bea!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for participating!
I'm really glad you've chosen this charity, not only because of its personal significance, but also because I think some people do not take asthma or allergies as seriously as, for instance, cancer or diabetes. We need to hear from people like you, who live with these challenges daily.
My husband is allergic to penicillin, by the way. That's not as much of an issue as a more modern antibiotic would be, but we still need to be very careful. For one thing, poultry feed often contains penicillin, and the birds accumulate it in their flesh.
Thanks again for your generosity!
Hi Lisabet, one of the reasons I chose AAFA is because so many people do not take allergies and asthma seriously enough. It's frustrating, and sometimes dangerous.
DeleteI was unaware of the penicillin and chicken feed connection. That's good to know as penicillin is one of the drugs I'm allergic to.
Thanks for hosting this!
I do have allergies and asthma and with I could do some things different but it is not to be.
ReplyDeleteIt's a challenge living with them for sure. I wish you lots of luck dealing with them.
DeleteI seem to have allergies which has led to a non-stop cough. The doctors are still trying to figure it out.
ReplyDeleteOh, that sucks. Good luck figuring it out. Whatever the cause, I hope you can get it under control.
DeleteThe world's air and water and land are getting so full of pollutants, I'm not surprised allegies and breathing/eating disorders are growing in numbers. Thanks for your efforts!
ReplyDeletePollution is certainly a factor. Thanks for visiting. :)
DeleteI went to an allergist and tested positive for 29 of the 30 things they tested. And of course they don't test for everything. I manage okay, but when you have seasonal allergies in spring, summer, and fall – and live someplace with a very short winter – it makes a big difference in your life. Thanks for supporting this charity.
ReplyDeleteOuch, that's miserable. :( Seasonal and environmental allergies are awful; I have both and they are uncomfortable at best. Good luck to you!
DeleteI guess we have been lucky. I can't think of anyone in my family who has asthma but I do know how scary and serious it can be. My husband and daughter have Celiac disease which is not an allergy but in some ways we have to treat it as such although they will just get sick instead of having their life threatened as can happen with an allergy. It is really scary how quickly someone with a allergy can decline. I sneeze all the time. Seriously, all the time. I know that I am allergic to a few things but haven't been tested and I manage.
ReplyDeleteYou are lucky, indeed, if sneezing is the worst of it for you. I know a few people with Celiac's and it seems like a challenging way to live. Best wishes to your husband and daughter!
DeleteMy brother has asthma though I don't think it's as bad as when he was younger. Or maybe he just doesn't talk about it anymore. The only allergy I have is to sulfa drugs. Not really a big deal. My son Kyle has a ton of pollen allergies. The only relief he gets is in the winter. I read your posts on Facebook and I'm amazed at how you handle everything and I always send out posivibes for you. I wish there was a cure for everything. :(
ReplyDeletePollen is the DEVIL. It's pretty much impossible to avoid. I appreciate the posivibes, every little bit helps.
DeleteThank you for doing this blog hop and donating. Thank you also for the link for resources. People should be noting it to offer to family, friends, and co-workers who may need it & not know it exists. I know you have other allergies that, with the advent of "pumpkin spice everything, all year long" makes your life a misery.
ReplyDeleteI worked at a B&N store once, and there was a cafe where they would bake the (pre-made & delivered [probably] frozen peanut butter cookies. The scent went pretty much all over both levels of the store. One mom told me, righteously annoyed, that her son was allergic to peanut butter, and the instant she realized they baking these, she had to take him out of the store, to a different part of the mall where the scent wouldn't trigger a potentially lethal allergy attack in him. I did know that minuscule amounts of peanut oil or even shell on cloth or in food could produce a lethal reaction (there was a TV mystery episode where Pat Morita of "Karate Kid" fame had such an allergy), but I hadn't known that the scent could do it. Once I did, I understood better how isolated you must be as soon as the Pumpkin Spice ANYTHING comes out.
I'm sure there have been hundreds of thousands, if not millions of deaths over the centuries from undiagnosed asthma & allergies, and I think that the person who said that pollution is making it more widespread and severe is right too.
It makes me extremely cautious ever wearing anything scented, because that, too, is a trigger, and some people have no idea of moderation in using scents.
Good luck!
Oh, I empathize with that mother and her poor son. Scent allergies are THE WORST. Isolation is a huge problem with scent allergies. You've certainly heard me complain often enough. I agree some people don't understand the concept of moderation for scents. Even a mild scent can be overwhelming when layered on too thick.
DeleteThanks for helping with the hop!
I have several people in my family who suffer from asthma, including my sister who's had very severe attacks. Nice to see this charity get highlighted!
ReplyDeleteSorry about your sister, and other relatives. :(
DeleteI don't have asthma but my sister suffers small bouts of it and my younger brother use to have asthma because he was born with weak lungs. Thank you for the post and it's very cool of you to support this charity and to help bring awareness of it!
ReplyDeleteThanks, and best of luck to your siblings.
DeleteI didn't know this charity before, so I really appreciate this!
ReplyDelete--Trix
Glad to help. :)
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