Josie

“It’s sad. Right?” Minna, our 3-year-old, has suffered from childhood asthma, which was particularly rough on her over the course of the last year. We’ve been to the ER several times, and even spent a night at Dartmouth in the pediatric unit. Bronchioloitis then turned to Reactive Airway Disease. Upper respiratory virus triggers labored breathing, wheezing, a drop in oxygen saturation, which if we are not able to stabilize at home, ends up requiring hospitalization. Resort to having our breathing kit – oximeter, emergency inhalers, nubulizers, steroids – bring it with us wherever we go. And she has started playing “doctor” at home – we got her of the sets with stethoscope and xray and bandages and thermometer and she goes around looking for new patients. So she was interested when we told her that Josie was “sick”. More fascination than feeling the weight of the diagnosis.