Asthma

I have two kids with asthma in my class. I've had a kid here and there other years, but these two are a bit more hesitant to take their inhaler before recess/PE (or have a worse case). 

Earlier this week one of them played too hard during hockey (without taking an inhaler prior to recess) and had really hurting ribs and lungs for a while. That incident wasn't too bad. I had to keep telling the kid to keep his mask down! He kept pulling it up even after I said, "You need to be able to breathe, keep it down! It's for a medical issue so you don't have to keep it up!"

Today, Mr. E and I swapped classes for PE again. Instead of dance, the 7-8th graders just played tone chimes the whole time. Mr. E ran my class hard (both kids took their inhalers), but the other one wouldn't ask for breaks when she needed them. After we switched back, she said she didn't feel so well. Then she said she was light-headed. She drank some water and tried to keep her arms elevated to let more air in her lungs. 

So we started science class. About ten minutes in, she didn't look much better. My class is small and would hear anything I said to her if I went by her desk to check-in, but I didn't want to call her out in front of everyone, so I walked over anyway. She was crying and said she couldn't catch her breath. So I had her straddle a chair and put her arms on the back to open up her ribcage more. I made her pull her mask down. (These kids and their masks during non-necessary times!!!) 

It's been a while since I've had asthma training, so of course now I remember all the things I should've said/done. It's not much more than I did, but I could've reminded her to stay calm and breathe slowly. I think she was getting in her head too much and couldn't calm down. She ended up going home about 20min early. When we did highs and lows, her asthma attack was everyone's low, mine included. :/ Not a great end to the day.

On a more positive note, after she went home and we got back on track with science, the 5-6th graders and I took a foray into life science again... our topic was on biological polymers, which led to cells, which led to the cell membrane, which led to how viruses get in our cells, which led to how our body fights off germs, which led to a clip from the Magic School Bus episode where they go inside a classmate's body to see what's making him sick... which led to the lymphatic system, which took us to the end of the day. Whew!