Breathe Easy... (My Experience of Asthma)

Member Name: karenuk

Product:	My Experience of Asthma
Date:	27/02/01 (43 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: none, but asthma can be controlled and is not unusual anymore

Disadvantages: can stop you doing some things, need to know the triggers

When I was a child, I was diagnosed as being asthmatic and given an inhaler. I tried it once, then refused to use it again. Luckily for me, I was a mild case then and grew out of it for many years.

At school, there was one boy with asthma in my class, I even remember his name. It seemed a comparatively rare condition, especially compared with these days, when it is reckoned that 10% of children suffer from it now.

Two of my children - my youngest and my oldest - have asthma. They both started with it at around four years old.

I took my eldest daughter to the Doctors several times, suggesting she may be asthmatic, but my idea was rejected. Then one evening, she started coughing and after it did not stop, I rang the Doctors. We took her to the emergency surgery - by this time, she had been coughing about half an hour and couldn't even speak inbetween coughs! The GP diagnosed asthma straight away and a few puffs of a Ventolin inhaler stopped her coughing.

Since then, we have got used to a life of inhalers, sometimes pink steroid tablets (Prednesol is one name for them) if the asthma is particularly bad.

One night in 1997 though, I woke up unable to breathe. I was terrified. I was 28 years old, had recently split up from my husband and was a single mum with three young kids in the house. It was around midnight and I couldn't talk, so trying to ring someone was out of the question too. I'm not quite sure how I did it, but somehow I got my breath back. I went to the Doctors the next day and she diagnosed asthma. It was back, probably due to the stress I had been suffering from.

My youngest ended up in emergency surgery one New Year's Day, coughing in the same way as my eldest had. The diagnosis was not a surprise. Once again, it was back to inhalers and a big plastic spacer to ensure my four year old got the right dose.

When she started school, no-one asked what asthma was, no-one sees her a
s unusual. There are a line of named spacers along one wall of the Reception classroom. This is an ever increasing problem.

Asthma can be caused by many things - it is often a combination of cold weather and exercise which affects my daughters. For me, it is often housework. Unfortunately for me, I cannot opt out of doing it, I just have to have my inhalers nearby.

Vacuuming can make it worse, especially if I have to go underneath my daughters' beds, where it is dusty. I have had asthma attacks from some bizarre things too, often to do with smells. I have to avoid certain brands of kitchen cleaner and bleaches. Once, I even had an asthma attack from being near cling-film!

Asthma is a serious problem, you can die from it, it can be quite disabling and prevent you from doing all you want to. But if you recognise the signs of an attack, know when you need to use your inhaler, and when you are so wheezy that you should go to see the GP, it is fairly easy to control. I have a Peak Flow Meter at home, which is a good indication of when I need more than inhalers.

If your child is diagnosed as being asthmatic, it is not the end of the world. It will not stop your children from doing sports or running around with their peers. They are unlikely to be ridiculed or teased about it either, as chances are, in an average-sized class, there will be at least another two children who are asthmatic as well.

Breathing is something we take for granted, we do it without thinking... if we are lucky. Asthma changes your perception of this.

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