Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Hey Neighbours!-You cutting your grass is a pain in my ...

My neighbours are the type to mow their lawn twice a week. It is annoying, not good for the environment, not great for your grass, and most importantly to me, not good for my son.
He has "sensitve lungs" (AKA Asthma, though they won't call it that until he is older).
The latest round of grass mowings occured on Sunday. I gave him claritin, with no noticeable improvement. I estimate 8 or 9 people on my section of the street mowed their lawns. By Monday morning our little guy couldn't breathe very well. We dosed him with his inhalers , repeatedly.
Took him to the park, because I figured it's a plain park, lots of rocks, not too many plants.
Luckily for us there was a parks and rec dude there mowing the lawn, while smoking a cigarette and driving a smelly diesel tractor. We left and came home, he was getting worse quickly. He fell asleep (not normal) at lunch time. He woke up after an hour, with very laboured breathing, and he couldn't even climb the stairs without crying and having to stand there and catch his breath. Only 6 steps!
I took him to the ER. They kept us a while locally and gave him oxygen, and pulmicort, prednisone and ventolin. By 7 at night, he was a bit better, but still had low levels of oxygen, and everytime they took away the oxygen his levels dropped immediately too low.
They rustled up an ambulance and we were whisked off to another hospital that had a pediatrics unit.
More treatments, overnight observation etc...
Anyway, he was better until we went outside, and he started breathing in some freshly cut grass.
Laboured breathing again instantly. I will continue to monitor him, and hope he isn't that severe again. The specialist said it was likely a combination of his allergies and a virus attacking his system a the same time.
And now I'm the jerk with the A/C running though it is only 27 out-, trying to minimize the allergens in my home. So, next time you are mowing your lawn..again...please think about some of the people out there who could use a week off from your noxious fumes or freshly cut grass!
The dr said it likely combined with a virus at the same time. Yay, what luck for us! It was a horrible feeling seeing him getting into the ambulance. I hate sickess.
I'm crossing my fingers that he never have to go to back.