6-Year-Old Asthma Patient Reduces Risk Level in Matria’s Program

“If you know what to do, you can help keep your child’s asthma attacks at a minimum,” says Evelyn Kelley Antoine.
 
Her 6-year-old daughter, Kelley Marie, was officially diagnosed with the chronic condition roughly a year ago, after years of upper respiratory tract infections and wheezing episodes considered by her physician only to be asthma-related symptoms.
 
Evelyn believes the tips she learned from Matria’s educational materials played a significant role in reducing Kelley Marie’s episodes and lowering her risk level in Matria’s Asthma Disease Management Program.
 
What triggered the official diagnosis was a full-blown episode in March 2004 during a visit to the White House to meet President Bush. At that time, Kelley Marie was two months shy of her fifth birthday.
 
Upon returning to their home in Columbus, Ohio, Kelley Marie received additional breathing treatments from her physician with a nebulizer, a device driven by an air compressor that turns liquid medication into a breathable mist.
 
In addition to asthma, Kelley Marie also was diagnosed with an upper respiratory tract infection, had to receive breathing treatments every six hours and take steroids for 10 days.
 
She also continued using her regular medications of Singulair for asthma, Zyrtec for allergies and the albuterol inhaler to control episodes.
 
Evelyn was thrilled with how the State of Ohio Health Plan handled the situation, from promptly delivering a nebulizer to her home free of charge to providing Matria’s asthma program.
 
Matria stratified Kelley Marie’s risk at Level 2 because of the number of episodes she had been experiencing.
 
“Soon after the full-blown attack in D.C., I started receiving calls from Matria’s nurses, who offered advice about how to maintain children with asthma,” Evelyn says. “They sent me a pamphlet about caring for an asthmatic child, which was very informative. I learned a lot of things I would never have known on my own, like the importance of washing bed linens regularly.”
 
Matria’s educational materials showed Evelyn how she could reduce triggers in Kelley Marie’s environment, namely dust mites that live in mattresses and bed linens.
 
After pouring through the materials last spring, Evelyn started a strict routine that included the following:

• Washing Kelley Marie’s linens twice a week
• Buying new pillows every two months
• Freezing Kelley Marie’s stuffed animals overnight in plastic bags to kill the dust mites
• Vacuuming Kelley Marie’s room regularly
• Making sure Kelley Marie is not in the room when she vacuums and for at least 20 minutes afterwards
• Using only no-dye laundry detergent
• Making sure Kelley Marie washes her hands after petting animals
  
• Keeping an air filter system in Kelley Marie’s bedroom and cleaning it regularly 

In the fall, Kelley Marie started school, which has an asthma management program involving the provision of rescue inhalers to teachers for use during an episode.
 
“Kelley Marie is the only one out of all the other asthmatic children who has not had to use her inhaler this year, and I like to think it’s partly because of all these things I do to keep her environment clean,” says Evelyn.
 
When Evelyn spoke with a nurse in January 2005 for Kelley Marie’s follow-up, Kelley Marie’s risk level was reduced to Level 1 because she had only experienced wheezing twice in six months and did not have to use the inhaler in school.
 
“I’m not saying these things are preventing Kelley Marie from getting sick, but it’s hard to imagine that managing Kelley Marie’s environment is not at least contributing to her health,” Evelyn says.
 
“I can’t help but think that if the other parents in Kelley Marie’s school knew about these things, then maybe they could keep their child from having as many episodes. That’s why the education part is so valuable. Knowing that you need to change the bed linens and buy new pillows regularly becomes a part of your life.
 
“Information is the key because if you have that, you can make better decisions environmentally and in how you go about the management of your healthcare.”