Changing your sheets and pillow cases every day might seem excessive. But for one mother, it was an absolutely necessity to protect her three kids with extreme cases of asthma. Now she thinks the Spry Pure pillow could change their lives. Read the story:
For most of us, washing our pillow cases, bed sheets, and covers is a routine chore. It needs to be done, and we get to it when we can. For Sue C., keeping her kids’ beds clean wasn’t routine at all—it was a matter of life and death. Three of Sue’s four children suffer from extreme cases of allergy-induced asthma, and for her, the consequences of not maintaining a hygienic environment could literally be fatal.
It all started in 1993 when Sue’s three-year-old son had his first severe asthma attack. Within several months, doctors confirmed that he had one of the worst cases of allergy-induced asthma they had ever seen. Two of her other three children were also diagnosed with the same condition. This meant that for the rest of their lives, they would have to take extreme measures to prevent exposure to a long list of allergens including smoke, dust, pollen, pet dander, chemicals, pollution, and more.
To accomplish this, the family had to make a lot of changes, big and small. They moved to a different part of the state where the air, soil, and water were cleaner. They installed an expensive HEPA HVAC filter in their home to keep the air as clean as possible and to allow the kids’ bodies to recover and cleanse while sleeping. On her doctor’s recommendation, Sue adopted a super-strict hygiene regimen for the kids that consisted of nightly showers, a clean set of bedsheets, bedcovers, and pillow cases for each child each night, daily washed pajamas and clothes, and more.
The never-ending washing and drying and changing of beds was exhausting, but for Sue, it was worth it because she wanted her children’s lives to be as normal as possible. “I wanted them to go out to recess, play sports, sleep over at friends’ houses, go to the prom, and all the things that normal kids do.” As the kids got older, she was able to change the linens less frequently, but she still had to replace pillow cases every night.
Still, even with all the precautions, there were still the unavoidable asthma attacks.
“Preventing exposure to allergens is critical, and we went to great lengths to do that, but there were so many things I couldn’t control, like when they would spend the night with a friend who had pets, or go to prom and got exposed to shell fish at dinner. Too many times I got that call that one of my teenagers was having a severe asthmatic reaction, which often ended in a hospital visit.” To this day, Sue’s children—who are now young adults—still have to be careful about everything they are exposed to. It’s a never-ending vigil that will continue throughout their lives.
“The interesting thing is that for years, I knew that following my nightly regimen helped my children. But what I didn’t know until recently was just how much junk actually gets absorbed down inside the ‘core’ of the pillow when we sleep on it. If you have a cold, the germs go deep into the pillow. If you get the flu, the virus gets into the pillow. Anything that’s on your head and shoulders when you lay down goes into the core of the pillow, and it stays there. It’s actually pretty gross.” Looking back on it, Sue is amazed that changing out the pillow case every night for all those years helped as much as it did. “In retrospect, that was really just a Band-Aid measure. I probably should have been throwing the pillows out every month as well.”
So when Sue discovered the Spry Pure pillow, she was ecstatic. “This is the first pillow I’ve ever seen that completely blocks all the junk from getting inside the pillow, whether it’s bacteria, dander, dust mites, skin cells, mold spores, even many viruses. So all those things that would trigger severe reactions in my asthmatic kids? They can’t even penetrate the Spry Pure pillow’s hygienic cover. They’re just blocked out. And when the inner pillow stays clean, that’s one source of allergens that’s completely eliminated. For asthmatics, this is critical because prevention is paramount.”
Now Sue is getting a Spry Pure pillow not only for herself and husband, but for each of her children as well, and she’s certain it will make a huge difference in their health. “Who knows? They might be able to change their pillow cases out less frequently,” Sue says. But for her, that’s not the most important thing. “Even better is the peace of mind that comes from knowing that the pillow you are sleeping on every night is clean outside and in. It is the most hygienic pillow I have found—and I know a thing or two about pillows.”