Kristi Ramon

losramons@peoplepc.com

I live in Azle, Texas.

I am a Nurse.

My favorite color is Red

My favorite movie is "When a Man Loves a Woman".

My favorite music is anything with a beat!!!

My favorite pastime is spending time with my kids.

For pets, I have fish, lots of fish.

My favorite quote is the Boyscout Motto: "Be Prepared"

9/3/2004 Hello, my name is Kristi, I am a 28 yr old mother of two and wife of 10 years to Micheal. 

My mother died September 29,2003 at the age of 50, from what I thought was complications of COPD, Emphysema, Bronchitis and Asthma.  She was diagnosed in her teen years with the asthma and was an avid smoker for the rest of her life, up to 2 packs a day.  She was not a part of my life until I was pregnant with my youngest child, Michelle.  After 21 years, I got my mom back for Christmas of 1996, but, the trouble had already started. 

She had already had several bouts with severe Bronchial Pneumonia and Asthma attacks.  I could not count all the times she was on Prednisone and multiple other inhalers.  Our relationship grew over the next 6 years, only for her to call me and tell me that she was dying and wanted to come stay with me. She had been told she was having complications of Emphysema and COPD.  At the time she moved in with me from Branson, Missouri to Fort Worth, Texas: she had been placed on O2 24/7, was in the ER at least once a month because her asthma attacks were so severe, used an A/A updraft treatment several times a day, slept sitting up, and wouldn't bathe without someone at the door for the fear of going into an attack and not being able to yell for help.  Eventually, we were in the ER (via ambulance) up to three times a week, at the end, it was every other night. 

The week before Christmas of 2002, she and my step-father left and went back to Missouri, a trip that I was sure would kill her since she couldn't even travel into the city and shop for more than 30 minutes at a time.  She called me in March of 2003 to check on my kids (their birthdays are both in March).  I didn't hear anything from her again until she was in the hospital for the last time. 

Several months after my mother died, my step-father remarried a wonderful woman, Mary.  Mary has informed me of things that I had not been told.  The biggest fact being that my mother had been diagnosed with Alpha-1 shortly before she died.

I am currently on a mission, to determine if I also have Alpha-1, lung or not.  I was diagnosed in April of this year w/ Adult onset Asthma and am to a point that I get short of breath just vacuuming the living room floor...Do my surviving brothers and sister have it?????  Do my children have it?????  I am scared....I am mad....I am looking for an answer that hasn't been easy to track down.  I have contacted the MD who treated my mother in her last days and made the diagnosis to verify the truth in the matter and have filled out a request with the Alpha-1 National Foundation for a home test to be sent to me.....none the less, I am waiting.......for anything.

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