“Our goal with patients is that they be able to lead a normal life, participate in sports, go outside and play and not have to worry about asthma causing problems.”
By Maureen Gilmer, Riley Children’s Health senior writer, mgilmer1@iuhealth.org
They are identical twins with identically beautiful smiles, but Faith and Raelynn Hamler also share an identical diagnosis of asthma.
Born three months prematurely, there were plenty of dark days earlier in life, including the day when a then-10-year-old Raelynn collapsed at the door to the hospital, unable to breathe.
“It’s been a lot of rough days, a lot of hospital admissions,” said the girls’ mom, Myranda Brisco.
But thanks to the care they receive at Riley Hospital for Children’s Asthma Clinic and revolutionary changes in treatment, the girls, who will turn 12 this weekend, have thrived despite the airway disorder.
Now sixth-graders, the twins came to Riley, along with their mom and grandma, Nikki Thompson, last week to ensure that their asthma is still under control.
This week – the third week in September – has been dubbed Asthma Peak Week, a way to bring attention to the reality that hospitalizations and emergency room visits increase for those with asthma during this period.
Common triggers this time of year include weather changes, allergens (pollen, pet hair, mold), back-to-school season and viruses like the common cold, according to Dr. Nadia Krupp, director of the Riley Asthma Program and the Riley High-Risk Asthma Clinic.
Other triggers include chemical irritants, poor ventilation, air pollution, inhaling tobacco smoke, and pests such as cockroaches and dust mites.
In Indiana, nearly one in 15 children live with asthma. It is the most common chronic disease in children and can be life-threatening, especially when combined with a respiratory illness like the flu or COVID-19.
For the Hamler twins, life got easier two years ago when they began receiving the injectable medicine Dupixent to ease their symptoms, freeing them from the necessity of taking daily steroids.
It’s a “game-changer,” said Dr. Kirsten Kloepfer, a Riley provider who treats patients with allergies and asthma. “They’re not going to the hospital or the emergency department, and they’re not needing steroids.”
In fact, since they started getting the twice-monthly injection in September 2022, the twins have not been hospitalized once.
“We have several patients who are now young adults that everyone in the hospital knew because they were sick all the time,” Dr. Kloepfer said, and they were often hospitalized for days or weeks.
Not so much anymore. Kids like Raelynn and Faith come in for clinic visits and pulmonary function tests (like the one administered by respiratory therapist Kate Steele last week), but then they go home to play and hang out with their friends.
“Our goal with patients is that they be able to lead a normal life, participate in sports, go outside and play and not have to worry about asthma causing problems,” Dr. Kloepfer said.
For the first time, both Raelynn and Faith participated in track and volleyball at school last spring, something they never thought they’d be able to do.
That’s the kind of news Dr. Krupp loves to hear.
“The advent of these biologic agents – these injectable medicines – has been an enormous advance in our ability to control asthma in kids who have really severe disease,” Dr. Krupp said. “They can go from being hospitalized once a month to not seeing the inside of a hospital for years.”
While there are exceptions, of course, “for those kids who have life-threatening disease, it has quite literally saved lives,” she said.
The change in seasons brings the threat of respiratory infections that can be exceptionally dangerous to people with already compromised lung function or breathing difficulties.
That’s why Dr. Krupp and her team encourage their patients and families to receive all appropriate vaccines.
“Those respiratory viruses hit asthma patients pretty hard,” she said. “I want my patients to be as protected as they can be.”
Brisco says that while asthma stopped her girls from being as active as they wanted to be at an early age, the Riley team has been a big support.
“This clinic has helped a lot. We’ve been coming here for years.”
And she has some advice for other parents who might be struggling with their child’s illness: “Don’t give up; get as much help as you can from the doctors.”
Photos by Maureen Gilmer and Mike Dickbernd, mdickbernd@iuhealth.org
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