Help, I can't breathe! (My Experience of Asthma)

Member Name: Leolover

Product:	My Experience of Asthma
Date:	08/01/02 (103 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: a good exscuse for getting out of PE at school

Disadvantages: Can kill you, very uncomfortable, having to be dependent on medication

I have suffered from asthma since I was five years old. Apparently, I developed it after a particularly nasty bout of whooping cough. No-one knows why some people develop asthma and others don’t, and no-one is sure why the number of people who suffer from asthma is increasing. For those afflicted, particularly children, it is a painful, terrifying experience. Thankfully, attitudes and understanding of asthma in schools has improved, and there is usually someone around who knows how to treat the symptoms and understands the difference between a nasty bout and a full blown attack.

What is asthma?

Asthma is a respiratory disease characterized by attacks of wheezing, shortness of breath, and a painful, tight feeling in the chest. Asthma symptoms often appear to be caused by the body's allergic reaction to a trigger. My asthma, for example, is triggered by me coming into contact with feathers, house dust and pollen, all things I am severely allergic to. Asthma can also be caused by certain drugs, irritants such as cigarette smoke or cleaning chemicals, exercise, or emotional stress. Any of these triggers can cause the asthmatic's lungs to release chemicals that create inflammation of the bronchial lining, constriction, and bronchial spasms. If the effect on the lungs becomes severe enough to seriously affect the sufferers’ breathing, carbon dioxide can build up in the lungs and lead to unconsciousness and even death. This is known as an asthma ‘attack’.


What is used to treat asthma?

There is no known cure for asthma. Although the disease may lie dormant for some years, current thinking is that childhood asthmatics do not outgrow the disease as previously believed. Treatment includes inhaled or oral steroids or bronchodilators such as Becotide 50 or 100 as ‘preventers’, and medicines which relieve asthma for a short time, called 'relievers'. Sufferers are also encouraged to try
breathing exercises, and, if possible, the identification and avoidance of triggers.

Most people who have asthma should have both a ‘preventer’ and a ‘reliever’ inhaler. The best way to take these medicines is to breathe them in. This is because you need less that way, and won't have so many side effects. It also works more quickly than tablets.

Chronic sufferers will sometimes be given short doses of steroids in tablet form, when their asthma is particularly severe. During an attack, a sufferer will probably be given oxygen and extra ‘reliever’ through a mask strapped to their face. This is called a nebuliser. Extremely severe attacks will require the asthmatic to be hospitalised for a few days and receive a nebuliser every half hour.

A ‘peak flow’ meter is often given to a sufferer to help them gauge the severity of an attack. This is a small instrument with a dial on the side which you blow into as hard as you can. The dial tells you how much air you are capable of holding in your lungs at that time – if it is below your normal level you must take extra medication to increase your lung capacity.


My experience of asthma

I have no recollection of life without asthma. As long as I can remember I have had to carry a ‘reliever’ around with me to help with frequent bouts of breathlessness, and now, even though my asthma has improved dramatically since I was a teenager, I panic if I realise that I’ve left home without it.

I’m sure that my dependence on my reliever is partly due to incorrect treatment and medication when I was younger. My doctor did not prescribe a ‘preventer’ for me when I first developed the disease, and as a consequence I found myself having to have a ‘puff’ of my relieving inhaler at least once every couple of hours, as there was nothing to stop the asthma from developing. I have sin
ce learned that this was putting a terrible strain on my heart, and that had I been prescribed the correct medication from the outset, there’s a good chance that I’d now be free of my reliever.

When I was about ten years old, my asthma had become very bad and I was experiencing frequent attacks, which meant regular trips to the hospital and high doses of relieving medicine via nebulisers. I developed an irregular heartbeat and throbbing headaches due to the high doses of medication I was receiving. I was sent to an ‘asthma clinic’ in London for assessment, and was finally prescribed preventative medication. This made a real difference – I still had occasional attacks, but they weren’t as prolonged or severe. I find it hard to believe that it took five years and serious pain and misery on my side before I was finally prescribed the medicine I needed. I can only hope and pray that the situation is different for sufferers these days, and they can get the help they need quickly and easily.

Over the years, my attacks became less frequent and I haven’t had one now for over two years. The last attack I had was triggered by one of those little air fresheners that you plug into an electricity outlet. I was suffering for days before I realised what was causing the attack.

I find that these days my asthma is triggered by exercise more than anything else. Paradoxically, regular exercise improves my lung function and helps me sleep through the night without waking up and needing my inhaler. So in order to be able to exercise without discomfort, I use my preventative inhaler four times before a workout. Using a steam room immediately after exercise also helps a great deal. Apparently, increased breathing during exercise causes cooling and drying of the lining of the air passages and this causes exercise-induced asthma. This explains why warm moist air protects against exercise-induced asthma.

On
a final note, It really annoys me that asthma sufferers are liable for prescription charges for their medication. I believe that we should have free medication, just as diabetics do. Asthma sufferers don’t have a choice whether or not they take their medicine – it could be the difference between life and death. I can only presume we have to put up with charges because the NHS would lose so much money if the medicine was free, as there are so many asthma sufferers in this country. It seems really unfair though – I pay over £100 a year for my inhalers, money I can ill afford but have no choice but to pay.


Useful websites for asthma sufferers :

www.actionasthma.co.uk
www.altsupportasthma.com
www.thriveonline.com
www.asthma.org.uk

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