You know it's Fall when...

• Every doorstep has a pumpkin on it.
• Colorful leaves blanket your car and your front lawn.
• Either your child or someone else's is engaged in a combination of coughing and sneezing.

Last night I heard the beginnings of a cold rattling around in Miss J.'s chest. I've been trying to convince myself that she is immune to the bug that many of her friends have been harvesting, although her constant coughing and stuffy nose tell me differently. Each year during cold/flu season she gets all weezy and I have to elevate her head at night and crank up the humidifier. Last night Miss J. sounded like she had a whistle stuck in her throat, so I ran for the secret stash of Albuterol, only to discover that it was old as dirt. Since she doesn't have full blown asthma, we don't have to use it on a regular basis so it usually stays on top of the fridge waiting for an emergency. I had to get creative, so I encouraged Miss J. to cough strongly every 15 minutes, followed by a drink of water to try to help clear things up. Of course this didn't work AT ALL, but I have to give myself an A for effort, considering the fact that a trip to emergency for an asthma treatment wasn't written anywhere on my internal "in case shit gets bad" list. I always have some kind of backup plan for all of those "just in case" moments.

Today I cut my first class short to catch Kaiser's last available appointment of the day. The advice nurse wanted me to have Miss J. looked over before they issued a prescription for more Albuterol. After listening to her lungs, the doctor determined that there was indeed a lot going on in there and had the nurse to come in and hook her up to the nebulizer.

Seeing the mist escape from the sides of the mask instantly reminded me of that one scene from the movie Little Shop of Horrors, you know the one where Steve Martin's character puts on his laughing gas pack and laughs himself to death. I tried to contain my laughter, especially after the nurse looked at me like I was crazy. But whatever. The mask + the look of nirvana in Miss J.'s eyes was funny as hell to me. After 3 minutes of treatment the doctor came back in to take a second listen and things had cleared up a bit, but not enough for him to send us home without 2 asthma medications. Pretty good for someone who doesn't have asthma huh? Don't worry, her drug use is completely legitimate, remember I told you that she gets all weezy each cold/flu season? So now, for the next two weeks she'll have to take 2 hits of Qvar each day and we have replenished our stash of Albuterol in case things get crazy after the Qvar is gone. We also left the hospital with some cream for her eczema, which also seems to bother her just once a year during the hot summer weather. She's not having any issues right now, but we're all stocked up... you know, just in case.