About This Blog

My name is Lindsay and I'm a 27 year old first-time mom living in Southeast Florida. I regularly blog over at You Are The Roots, but from August 3rd-August 4th, 2013, you will be able to find me over here. A is for Albuterol serves as my blogging platform during the 2013 Blogathon, a 24-hour event that I participate in each year with my dear friend, Katie, who herself blogs around the clock for Best Friends Los Angeles. Don't forget to check out her blog, too!

When my son, Ethan, was 4 1/2 months old, he contracted what appeared to be a very bad cold. It was shortly after he began to have issues breathing and exuding a deep, frightening wheeze that he tested positive for RSV. RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, is a highly contagious airborne virus that most affects the lungs and airways in babies under the age of one.

While it took Ethan well over a month to recover from RSV, his respiratory system never fully recovered. The virus likely paired with the fact he was born at 36 weeks gestation caused lasting respiratory damage. To this day, Ethan cannot so much as get a cold, a teething-induced sniffle or walk past someone who is smoking without it turning into a respiratory nightmare. Despite the time that has gone by since his bout with RSV, Ethan receives two corticosteroid breathing treatments per day, an already exhaustive measure that is only worse when his wheeze flares up into a heavy, barking wheeze-cough that requires the aid of Albuterol treatments every few hours.

There have been plenty of times that the sound of Ethan's chest wheeze, the hum of the nebulizer, the foggy mists of nebulizer medications have all felt like too much to handle. I've been reduced to tears, frustration, fear, trying to assess the bark in his cough or the way his chest rasps when he breathes from playing a little too hard. It took me a while to realize, really, we were simply fortunate. When Ethan was ill, we were able to give him frequent treatments through our own in-home nebulizer that insurance provided. It was something that I completely took for granted for so long.

That's where Global Links comes in. Global Links is a medical relief and development organization with a motto that will haunt you: People in other countries are literally dying from what we throw away. Global Links provides those in need with medical surplus that we take for granted, from sutures to hospital beds to everything in between and everything above and beyond. One of their departments is a Nebulizer Campaign which puts nebulizers where they are needed the most. The chilling idea that some mothers have to carry their children as they struggle to breathe for miles -- days, even -- with only the hope that their child will both stay alive and find a shared nebulizer station is haunting. With asthma on the rise and becoming a worldwide epidemic, especially in less-developed countries where farming is on the rise, the need for nebulizers is higher than ever. No child should ever have to die because of the inability to breathe.

In the United States, used medial equipment like nebulizers are oftentimes thrown away immediately after use. They cannot be recycled and sit solely in landfills while children continue to die from easily treatable respiratory ailments. Global Links ensure that these nebulizers are instead donated to hospitals and clinics while they're needed. No mother should have to watch their child's life succumb to the inability to breathe.

During the 2013 Blogathon, I will be blogging once every thirty minutes for 24 hours straight. Much like a walk-a-thon, swim-a-thon or marathon, donors sponsor me through donations to Global Links and their nebulizer campaign. We were fortunate to be able to place several nebulizers in communities where they were needed last year, and I know we can donate even more this year.

You can learn more about Global Links and all of their incredible programs and services at their website, globallinks.org.