What I Do Now:
Quiet Genius
I'm certainly not in the dark when it comes to technology. I do have a blog. But once in a while I become "babe in the woods" wide-eyed at what technology offers us. Yesterday was such a day.
Yesterday I took my son to the Mt. Sinai Division of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology for his annual skin and blood tests. Our allergist noted that Eden was in good health overall but seemed to have some slight and possibly chronic congestion in his lungs. No surprise to me because Eden is asthmatic and he is, in my mind, Eden The Super All Time Allergic Boy! (Now picture a cape embroidered with a big "A" flying in the wind.)
At six years and older, asthmatic children enter the age where a breathalyzer test can be a helpful measure of how much oxygen their lungs are getting. So Eden's allergist suggested that he perform a breathlyzer test. My mother has lifelong asthma and I was familiar with the procedure and I knew it didn't hurt - you just blow into a set of tubing that measure your oxygen output.
Off we trotted to another room down the hall, where my only concern was that Eden might get bored and not bother breathing as hard as possible. Then lo and behold, Eden was seated in a chair in front of color computer monitor with a picture of house and a wolf next to it (I'll huff and I'll puff....) The nurse handed him a tubing which was wired to the screen and instructed him to "blow the house down! When Eden tried he was rewarded by an animated show of the wolf blowing at the house. After a few tries, he blew it down revealing an understandably distraught little pig.
Eden loved the breathalyzer of course. It was all fun and games so he breathed as hard as he could. My prediction is that breathlyzers like these will have more accurate results by motivating young patients like Eden. And I am so thankful that we are fortunate enough to have medical insurance that allows us access to this kind of quiet genius.