For one seven-year-old boy in Cochrane, the outdoors can be an intimidating place.
Noah White was diagnosed with severe allergy-related asthma at three-years-old.
“We did allergy testing and he is allergic to basically outside – the grass, the trees, the pollen, a couple different leaves, and most animals. Basically from March until October he has a very hard time functioning outside,” explained Erin White, Noah’s mom.
“He had symptoms and we suspected something even before he was diagnosed – we just had to wait for the allergist to get the official diagnosis.”
She elaborated that as an infant and toddler, Noah suffered from severe eczema, which was then replaced with typical allergy symptoms such as wheezing, puffy eyes, and a runny nose.
Currently he is taking a “pretty substantial dose” of steroids daily, combined with two different inhalers and another medication in order to “keep his airway open.” The steroids are necessary to treat a lung infection Noah contracted in October 2015.
Erin explained they are finally to a point where he is taking the correct dosage of each medication.
“He missed probably three and four weeks of school during Grade 1 – when you’re only in Grade 1 that’s a lot of school to be missing,” said Erin. “When he would come in from recess, he wouldn’t be able to catch his breath and so I was driving up there all the time with his inhalers and Claritin, trying to get ahead of it.”
Thanks to the dedication from staff and teachers at Elizabeth-Barrett Elementary School, Erin is confident Noah gets proper care when he leaves for school each day. Unfortunately, even when he takes all of his medication, circumstances can arise when it isn’t enough.
“The last day of school last year he was at school and was doing everything he normally does. He called us right at the end of the day and he couldn’t catch his breath – and you could tell right away just looking at him … he couldn’t get enough air. We ended up taking him right to Urgent Care.”
She said in case of emergency, they are equipped with a “rescue inhaler that is supposed to give a quick response” during an asthma attack. In that circumstance, it didn’t work.
“They saw him immediately and gave him a liquid dose of steroids. After that, they had to monitor him to make sure his oxygen went back to normal and once it tapered off and we thought we could go home, he struggled again.”
That day, Noah and his family spent about seven hours in urgent care.
“It’s scary for him because he starts to panic – he’s getting better now because it hasn’t happened because he’s on steroids, but being on the steroids when you’re only seven-years-old is not a long-term solution at all,” Erin said.
Despite his asthma, Noah still leads an active life playing his favourite sport, hockey. He even is becoming more independent as he gets older and is starting to help manage his medications on his own, which his parents monitor.
Now, thanks to a three-year study from researchers at the University of Alberta and the University of Calgary, when Noah does need to visit a medical centre the process will be a lot less stressful.
“For anyone who doesn’t have any background with asthma or with allergies that are that severe, it can be really scary when you’re watching a little kid try and catch their breath and they can’t,” Erin said. “Any additional research and any light that comes to the subject that helps educate me, as a parent, and Noah, as a kid, and any other people around him is really fantastic.”
The research done promises to put a treatment guide directly into asthma patients’ electronic medical record with their family physician to ensure they receive the best evidence-based care.
According to Alberta Health Services (AHS), the Alberta Primary Care Pathway for Childhood Asthma – funded by a $750,000 grant from The Partnership for Research and Innovation between AHS and Alberta Innovates Health Solutions – will introduce this innovative mechanism to 22 medical practices across the province as a trial run to assess its benefits in managing childhood asthma in primary care settings. If the results are positive, a full provincial rollout is envisioned.
The research is geared at helping health professionals prescribe the right medication and encouraging parents to fill and use their child’s prescription properly. Doctors will be given a “decision-making tree” right in the child's electronic medical record to help make their diagnosis, while their staff will receive more training to provide education on asthma treatments.
“The whole point of why we were excited about this new “care tree” that’s coming out is that if we were away and at centre that isn’t our own with doctors that didn’t know him, the idea that they’d be able to type in his name and find out right away exactly what medications and dosage he is on and his history, that’s going to save so much time,” said Erin.
Dr. David Johnson, one of the project’s leads and a member of the AHS Respiratory Health Strategic Clinical Network, can attest to how much this program has helped treat Noah.
“We know that many kids with asthma don’t have good control – when kids have good control of their asthma it makes their lives so much better. Noah is such a great example of that - this year in hockey he was able to play with reckless abandonment and make breakaways,” Dr. Johnson explained.
“The previous year his asthma wasn’t in good control and he kept having to come off the ice.”
Depending on the results of this trial, this program could potentially have applications in other fields not just asthma-related treatment.
Turning eight-years-old in just a few weeks, Noah will continue to enjoy physical activities despite his asthma. He just won the Bow Valley Credit Union’s First Goal Program and his prize was two tickets to see the Calgary Flames.
“He is so passionate about hockey and because he had such a great year, we signed him up for spring hockey. It’s good because it keeps him active but it also keeps him inside for a little bit longer than doing an outside activity,” said Erin.
“He’s good - he’ll tell you his asthma really sucks and he wishes he didn’t have it, but looking at him you’d think he was just a seven-year-old kid who just once in awhile has to take a break and regroup.”
