On a cold February night in 2005, Trent Hall started coughing ? sometimes uncontrollably. But he never got sick, and he never had trouble during the day. At first his parents thought he might be allergic to something in their North Baltimore townhome.
But Trent knew better.
“I told my father that I had asthma,” he said. “The next day we went to the hospital to check because I was coughing real bad. I knew straight up it was asthma, because my friend has it, and he told me what it was like.”
A year and a half later, Trent monitors his lung capacity with a flow meter and uses two kinds of inhalers, a maintenance prescription to keep his airways open and an emergency drug.
He also pays close attention to the weather report and stays inside on Code Red air-quality days, playing “Sonic Battle 2” on his GameCube or Nintendo?s Super Mario Sunshine in the basement of his family?s new home.
“When we go out on hot days, we make sure he takes his meds,” said Trent?s mother, Nicolel. “I walk with the albuteral pump just in case.”
Air quality makes a big difference for thousands of children like Trent and adults living with asthma throughout the Baltimore region, said Melissa Streett, a nurse with the University of Maryland Hospital for Children. “Even a controlled asthmatic needs to be aware.”
It turned out the Halls? home was part of the problem. Roaches and mice had moved into the neighborhood and their droppings can aggravate asthma, according to health workers. After getting an allergy skin test, Trent learned “dust mites are what really set me off.”
Trent now sleeps with protective covers under his pillowcase and sheet. He also tracks his condition daily, monitoring the weather and air quality reports, taking his daily preventive medication. Trent uses a flow meter to determine how his lungs are functioning and keeps relief medications handy if the air expected to be bad.
