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Asthma is something I have lived with most of my life, beginning with observing my mother who is an allergic asthmatic. I recall vividly her coughing boughts and inability to clear the over-produced mucus from her throat and airways. I remember her labored breathing and often changing color and fighting to get air in and out of her lungs, and in severe cases this meant going to the hospital. This is a frightening thing for a young child. The thought always crossed my mind - is mom going to die? Some of my siblings would inherit either the allergies or asthma or both. (I was spared the asthma but do have allergies.) Happily, mom was saved to this date every time she needed to be through the use of medicine and/or hospital visits. These however had a tragic toll on the family, costing my parents precious money we never had to spare while raising a family of 8 children. Today mom is 74, and also suffers from cardiovascular disease and sleep apnea just to name a few, and uses a CPAP device in order to breathe properly while asleep. Mom is on controller medicine for her asthma, and even with that occasionally uses her rescue medicine with a nebulizer. A few years ago her physician changed her medicine to something that was new, a drug which offered similar relief in her inability to breathe but didn't cause her heart to race nor make her as fatigued. This medicine was called Xopenex, and she has it delivered through her home health care. My mother sings the praises of her new medicine because she "gets better without having to feel worse" in her own words.

Interestingly, I am now the father of a young child, who like grandma, has both allergies and asthma. A combination of diseases which make it very hard on young airways, particularly during the nearly year-round growing season we enjoy in southern california. She too is now on Xopenex, and I can say first hand how much improved she is on this product versus her albuterol. An added benefit unlooked for by my wife and I - our daughter was not as frenetic and agitated, and was able both to go to bed and to stay asleep throughout the night, which was a great help and blessing to all of us. This was not the case with albuterol, and I am ashamed to admit we often skipped the medicine or reduced its dose, hoping that she would sleep through the night. Frequently we were wrong - but that is not necessary now - not with Xopenex.

Xopenex has helped save the bookends of my life, and I commend the company for improving on this critical medicine. Please feel free to pass my story on to whomever needs to know this critical, life-saving medicine should remain available to all who require it. My parents paid into the medicare system all of their adult lives and I do as well, and I want this medicine available for her and everyone else who deserves a better alternative than albuterol.