Asthma: Friend or Foe? (My Experience of Asthma)

Member Name: Caroline R

Product:	My Experience of Asthma
Date:	28/02/01 (29 review reads)
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“Would you recommend it to a friend?” is a strange question to have in a category called “Diseases.” Yeah, sure I recommend being unable to breathe. Asthma, however, has accompanied me wherever I go for so long that I cannot actually see it as an enemy. I have suffered from it since I was around two years old and have always just accepted it as part of me.

As a child, asthma almost defined who I was. Although it was not that long ago, asthma was nevertheless not as common as it is now, and I was always “the asthmatic one” in any class at school. It manifested itself partly in acute attacks, usually triggered by cold weather or having to do sport, and partly in making me susceptible to chest infections. Every time I started with a cold, my mum would be in despair because it nearly always meant two weeks off school and often hospitalisation.

An asthma attack is akin to a three lane motorway suddenly narrowing to a country lane – a tiny bit of traffic gets through, but everything else grinds to a standstill. The muscles of the bronchial tubes go into spasm, drastically narrowing them and preventing the full volume of air from entering. This produces the characteristic wheezing sound which has been the brunt of many a second-rate comedian’s humour. Asthma campaigns emphasise how frightening this experience is for children, but I have to disappoint them by saying that I have never in my life felt frightened by an asthma attack. It has always just been something that happened – just another thing to deal with.

While I was still at school, an asthma attack would not provoke the thought “Help! I’m going to die!”, but the thought “Yes! I’ll get out of P.E!” I don’t think I can avoid sounding flippant here, but I detested P.E. and I detested school in general – asthma was a useful ally in trying to evade them. The fact that it was potentially life
-threatening was a small price to pay. I can be completely truthful in saying that there were times when I would genuinely rather have died than had to go to school. The weeks in hospital with not much to do gave me the chance to read proper books instead of the inane rubbish they fed us at primary school – my absence also gave the rest of the class the chance to catch up with me! (Caroline R – winner of the Dooyoo award for modesty 2001.)

The doctors were confident that I would grow out of asthma, and for a while I did. By the time I left university I had got to the stage where I didn’t know where my inhaler was – and any asthmatic will tell you that stepping out of the door without that blue lifesaver is asking for big trouble. About a year ago, however, the condition re-appeared, perhaps due to the stress of organising my wedding, followed by the stress of having a husband to clear up after! Fortunately modern asthma drugs are remarkably effective and keep the condition completely under control. The blue inhalers, formerly called Ventolin and now known by the generic name Salbutamol, really do work instantly to relax the muscles of the bronchial tubes and I believe that in its unassuming and taken for granted way, this drug is one of the most important pharmaceutical developments of the 20th century. Prior to the advent of such inhalers, there was not much asthmatics could do during an attack except try to relax and wait for it either to go away or kill them – a reason for all asthmatics to be grateful that they live now and not one hundred years ago.

I don’t think there is much to be gained from me giving advice about how to cope with suffering from asthma – most people develop it when very young and are experts at coping with it by the time they are old enough to be reading this. Asthma used to be the disease of “the fat kid at the back” but now I think it is more widely recognised that all
types of people, whether fat or thin, sedentary or sporty, fit or unfit, can suffer. Thankfully modern medicine has triumphed over the effects of this condition, and while its incidence is increasing it can nevertheless be successfully controlled.

My asthma is just another part of my life – there is no point getting bitter about it or wishing I didn’t have it. It has not been an enemy but an indifferent companion – and looking back I can even thank it for the periods of illness during childhood. They gave me the time and leisure to develop a love of books and learning before school had a chance to take it all away.

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