clearing the uncertainty (My Experience of Asthma)

Name: triplecthegame

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Product:	My Experience of Asthma
Date:	16/01/01 (170 review reads)
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Before you read this opinion maybe you might want a little information about my medical history - I'm a 21 year old who has been diagnosed as Asthmatic for 3 years now although in my own opinion its been there or there abouts since my early teens and its just never been picked up, before my diagnosis I was hardly ever seen anywhere near a doctors surgery and now I'm on a 6 month check-up plan with a specialist Nurse.

So onto clearing the uncertainty about this condition, first off what it does, well not much to be honest, to start off with as any asthmatic will tell you we have to be extra-specially careful with any Cold, Flu, Infection or similar illnesses because this could trigger an attack, some of us may have to avoid certain foods, environments or animals due to an allergy but please note here, not all asthmatics are allerrgic to things, personally I'm not in fact I never have been but I've often been asked the question what is it that sets your attacks off then?, well there isn't just one thing, it could be an extremely stressful situation, it could be a major illness getting on top of me or there are still some times when I've had an attack and can't think of any 'triggers'.

So what exactly happens to an asthmatic during an attack? well put simply they get breathless, of course theres more to it than that but if we go down to the basics we usually start off just feeling a bit 'weasy' thats when you'll see us all rushing for our blue inhalers, but of course theres going to be times when we all are either too late or the attack is just too severe and thats when the worrying part comes in after the weasyness (definitely not a word but hey-ho, its my opinion and I'll make words up if I want to!!) the actual whole system of breathing gets severely weakened, and the airways slowly start to close up and thus the patient (OK Me!) will struggle to breathe and thats where the calming experience come
s in - if any of you are ever near somebody who has an attack the first thing you should do is try and get some help, but don't leave them and more importantly don't panic (well at least not in front of the patient anyway), but we'll get back to the panicing part later, nine times out of ten the patient will still be able to speak, find out as much as you can, if you don't know them find out their name, find out if theres anything that calms them down a bit (personally if somebody is holding my hand during an attack it seems to help a lot - don't know why, it just does) and of course if its something you can do without leaving them or putting yourself in trouble do it, once you've started to calm them down get them a drink of water or failing that something with a sharp taste (i.e. pure Orange juice after making sure that they aren't allergic to it) again this usually calms the patient down a bit plus it will also sooth the airways a bit after the attack, after that just stay with the patient until help arrives and give yourself a pat on the back, you did well!! Right now I want to apologise to you all - this paragraph was a bit long, but I felt it necessary to give you all a little insight into how to deal with someone having an attack, now obviously I'm not a health official so if you're asthmatic yourself please don't take this as gospel, consult a doctor as to the best way to stop the attack.

But of course with this condition comes a lot of personal feeling and thats what I'll be telling you about now, first off I'm going to be honest, even though I'm slowly beginning to understand what is happening to me, asthma still scares the living daylights out of me, and this is half the reason why I've said its of the utmost importance that you try not to panic in front of anyone having an attack because they will be panicing themselves and it starts off a vicious circle - they have the attack, they panic a
bout it, the attack gets stronger, they panic even more and so on!, However even though there is always the chance that I may have an attack it doesn't mean I'm any different to the person I was this time 4 years ago, I still enjoy all the same things, in fact the only change is that if I go anywhere I have to carry my inhaler with me, see not much change eh?, Now of course when I have an attack thats when I'm going to be most scared, and I'll be honest especially in my most recent 2 attacks I thought I was going to meet my maker so to speak, but of course I'm typing this so I didn't and thats what keeps me going.

Finally you look into other peoples perceptions of Asthma, as with most conditions there are some people out there who like to play the martyr and claim they're asthmatic when really they've just got a cold and its these people that are making the world wary when somebody tells them they're asthmatic, when I was first diagnosed I went into work and told them and the first thing my employer told me was that he thought I was putting it on to get a couple of days off work and a little bit of sympathy, and this has followed me throughout the last 3 years, of course once anybody whos made comments like that has seen me have an attack they've automatically changed their opinion, but its just something that irks me when they say I'm faking all of this (if I am then I must be a damn good actor!). Of course though different people react to this type of thing in different ways and another popular comment that has always been said is usually along the lines of I bet that must be scary, or I don't know how I'd cope! well this is where I give the 'don't worry' speech that I seem to have perfected to a tee, in fact the best one I know is a colleague whos diabetic and has actually said that she wouldn't want to swap for all the tea in china because at least she can keep hers in control, well I&#
39;ll just say this now - I'm fine don't worry about me! Finally theres the person who freaks out - again theres a colleague at work who once he'd seen me in an attack he won't sit anywhere near me or speak properly to me, to that of course its a job of hey its his loss!, on another occasion when I had an attack this new years eve just gone at work the manager in charge started to panic in front of me and started rushing around asking people to dial 999 and get me an ambulance, luckily on the day I had enough about me to tell her that I'd be fine and I didn't need any medical attention and this time instead of ignoring me she admitted the next time she saw me that the change in me happened so quick that she thought I was going to die, well to cut a long story short we had a laugh and even now still have a giggle about it at times, what I'm trying to say with all these examples is that no matter how you think about the condition the best way to find out is just talk to the person, most times you'll find they're quite willing to talk (I know I am) and it may change your point of view on the person remember we are all normal people after all!

Anyway sorry to you all if this seemed a bit of a rant but this seemed to be the best way to get it off my chest (pun intended), thanks for reading and if you really do need more information then either consult your GP or visit www.actionasthma.co.uk (I think dooyoo has a banner) and they're more than happy to help.

** UPDATE **

Since writing this that same person who wouldn't sit near me has since had a looooooong chat with me about it all wanting to know all the facts and he is genuinely sorry for ignoring me, just thought you'd all like to know.

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