Ethan Good’s allergies and asthma often kept him away from a lot of things kids love to do, replacing fun stuff with things like shots and needing to go to the doctor every time he caught a cold.
Now 10, he is breathing deeper these days, playing sports in his hometown of Bismarck, North Dakota. He recovers from the common cold the way everyone else does.
If you’re Ethan’s family, these are gifts.
“Being able to get over a cold like other kids was an ‘aha’ moment for us,” his mother Erin remembers. “It was ‘wow, he’s able to fight a cold now because he doesn’t have all this other stuff going on.’”
The “other stuff” started with asthma when he was two. It eventually led to the discovery that he also suffered from allergies, compounding his discomfort. In the years since then the Good family has witnessed their son’s progress with Sanford Health allergists helping him along.
Sanford providers have been with Ethan and the family the whole way, Erin said. Most recently Ethan has worked with Housam Alasaly, M.D., a specialist in allergy and immunology at Sanford Northern Sky Clinic in Bismarck.
Managing asthma and allergy symptoms
It hasn’t always been easy – Ethan has had some tough days – but he is playing hockey and baseball and has a much firmer grip on his diagnosis and treatment than would have been the case a few years ago.
“We have had really great experiences with our Sanford doctors,” Erin said. “Dr. Alasaly listens to Ethan talk about his symptoms, and he will ask us what we’ve been seeing and ask about our concerns. He has never been someone who would tell us how Ethan should be or how he thought he was. He really listens to us.”
With Dr. Alasaly monitoring Ethan’s progress, the recurrent coughing is not as much of an obstacle as it once was.
“When we established the more consistent management, his mother estimated he was 70% to 80% better,” Dr. Alasaly said. “He was tolerating exertion much better, which is the most important part of this.”
In a sense, Ethan’s level of activity has served as a gauge for the success of his treatment. His love of sports actually figured into his progress when he and his parents discovered playing hockey was not nearly the problem they anticipated it would be.
Initially they did their best to move him away from playing hockey, reasoning that such an aerobic sport would one of the last things he should be doing.
“We were kind of dumbfounded that this kid with severe asthma and allergies really seemed to do fine playing hockey,” Erin said. “He rarely needed his inhaler or anything on the ice. We started to realize there’s no outdoor mold on the ice.”
Breathing easier in sports and beyond
It confirmed the problem was more about allergies than it was about asthma. Moving forward with help from Sanford doctors, Ethan made significant improvements.
The two inhalers he had to deal with twice a day went down to one. The shots that reduced allergy symptoms have also slowed his asthma symptoms. The allergy shots – shockingly, as a young child Ethan really didn’t like getting shots – eventually went from once a week to once a month.
There have been occasional detours, but the team – Ethan’s family, Dr. Alasaly, Sanford nurses and Ethan – has overcome them.
After a recent minor setback, Dr. Alasaly explained to Ethan that as frustrating as it seemed, they were headed in the right direction. It was the right thing to say.
“Dr. Alasaly saw Ethan’s look,” Erin said. “As a parent who was there, I didn’t have to say anything. Dr. Alasaly recognized the disappointment and told Ethan he was getting better even if it didn’t seem like it sometimes. He told Ethan how proud he was of him with the way he was handling everything.”
It is a rewarding part of the profession for allergists.
“It’s very satisfying, especially when it comes to kids like Ethan,” Dr. Alasaly said. “You want them to lead a normal life and to enjoy activity. They’re at an age where they want to be very active and move around. You don’t want to feel like you can’t do the same things as your friends. If you can make a difference in a child’s life like that, that’s what I’ll remember.”
Regular communication with providers is a big piece of every child’s healthcare, but especially so for kids with asthma and allergies. Symptoms are not the same all the time. Easy access to expertise can become a quality-of-life issue.
“When we have had questions, we’ve always known we can talk to a nurse. Ethan has a favorite nurse, Janet Wiege, and we know she will be able to go ask Dr. Alasaly what we should do,” Erin said. “You know they’re working as a team.”
On allergy shot days Erin will pick up Ethan from school and he’ll know what’s coming next. This is shot day, right? Yes it is.
Allergy season remains challenging. Recently, he was coughing before bedtime and he asked if this is the way it used to be all the time. Erin told him it was. He went on to tell her how he knows his shots are working and thanked her for doing what she could to help him feel better.
“It took us a long time to get to this point, but we’re grateful,” Erin said. “He has great trust in us as parents and also his team – people like Janet,” Erin said. “He knows it’s not fun, but he also knows we’re all trying to make his life better in the long run. We’re very proud of the way he has been able to accept that and push through it.”
A better world for those with asthma
Advances in asthma care have allowed kids like Ethan, as well as many adults, to lead normal lives to a much greater extent than would have been the case for earlier generations.
In the past, doctors mainly focused on stopping sudden breathing problems. Over time they realized the main cause of asthma is swelling inside the lungs. When treatments began focusing on reducing swelling instead of just reacting to attacks, it opened a new world for those with asthma.
Advances in immunotherapy treatments continue.
“There are a lot of options now available that can make a big difference in peoples’ lives,” Dr. Alasaly said. “I think we’re living in a good age when it comes to asthma.”
Learn more
- Don’t let asthma prevent you from sports
- What’s making your fall allergies flare up
- The differences between allergies and sinus infections
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Posted In Bismarck, Children's, Ear, Nose & Throat, Specialty Care
