...would happen," says tile Kinnelon, N.J., resident. "But that was before we had plan."

The "plan" was an asthma action plan that guided her on how to track her children's symptoms, monitor their breathing, and give them medication. "A plan tells you what to do and when," she says. "Without it, asthma is out of control, and that's when the disease wreaks havoc on your life."

Asthma causes the airways to be inflamed or swollen, and the surrounding muscles are tight. When people with asthma react to various triggers, such as dust, pollen or smoke, their airways become narrow, which causes labored breathing, wheezing, chest tightness, or coughing. About 15 million people in the United States have asthma and almost 5 million are children, according to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). livery year, asthma causes roughly 2 million emergency room visits, up to 500,000 hospitalizations, and 4,500 deaths.

Fusco-Walker says she learned to control asthma after she followed her doctor's advice and called a nonprofit organization called Allergy & Asthma Network Mothers of Asthmatics (AANMA). The woman who answered the phone was Nancy Sander, who founded the organization in 1985 after facing challenges in dealing with her own daughter's asthma. Fusco-Walker says, "Nancy assured me that I wasn't going crazy."

With support and advice from AANMA, Fusco-Walker learned to look for patterns in her children's illness. For example, her kids got sick every time they visited her mother, and her mother smoked. Her oldest daughter had an asthma attack when she visited their horse barn. Fusco-Walker also learned to spot early warning signs of trouble. "I noticed that one of my daughters rubbed her nose when breathing became difficult," she says. "If I saw her rubbing her nose, I knew to get the peak flow meter." A peak flow meter is a small tool that measures how fast air moves out of the airways. Fusco-Walker attributes the regular use of a peak flow meter to the success of her asthma action plan.

By the time Fusco-Walker's youngest child was diagnosed with asthma at age 5, her family had a much better understanding of the disease. Shannon, who is now 16, Jared, 19, and Morgan, 21, grew up learning how to use their asthma medicine. "They know when to use their inhalers, they know when they need refills, and they know when they need to take medication before doing activity," she says. They also grew up participating in just about any activity they wanted to, including football, swimming, soccer, and snowboarding.

Experts say most people with asthma can live a normal, active life. What it takes avoiding the triggers that make your asthma worse, keeping track of your symptoms, and sticking to an effective treatment regimen. many people with asthma need short-term medicine for when they experience symptoms, and also long-term daily medicine that reduces inflammation in the airways and helps prevent asthma attacks.

"I'll hear people say they skipped their medication because they haven't been coughing that much," says Richard L. Wasserman, M.D., Ph.D., clinical associate professor of pediatrics at the University of texas Southwestern Medical School. "But I tell them they probably wouldn't have coughed at all if they kept to the regimen." He says it's important to understand that asthma is a chronic inflammatory lung disease. "Like high blood pressure, asthma is there all the time even when there are no symptoms."

Accurate Diagnosis

The first step in controlling asthma is an accurate diagnosis. Fusco-Walker says doctors diagnosed her kids with all kinds of illnesses before she knew the problem was asthma. According to Kathleen Sheerin, M.D., an asthma specialist with the Atlanta...

NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.



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