Sick of asthma

Sick of asthma

Do you ever get sick of asthma? I was doing a presentation about asthma last week, when I thought 'how has this become so much a part of my life?' There are days when I am tired of inhalers, nebulizers, and all of the other equipment.

I was trying to explain asthma to a group of normal people. You know, people who can pet cats, go horse back riding, walk through a hay maze in the fall, etc, all without thinking about asthma.

I hope they understood everything I was presenting, I went through it slowly, and asked if anyone had questions. It's a lot of information, and I remember when the first of my kids was diagnosed 11 years ago. I think my reaction was something similar to 'wait-what?'. Doesn't your head just swim when you or your kids are first diagnosed?

I received 30 pages of printouts about asthma from the respiratory therapist when Son #1 was hospitalized the first time. I went through every page, re-reading, highlighting, etc. Asthma is a strange world of weird terminology and even weirder equipment. It's second nature to me now, but it was hard to understand initially.

I hope my 11 years of experience can help some of you out there. Hang in there, asthma definitely has its ups and downs. And winter is often one of the downs. I guess I should appreciate the days when none of the kids are coughing and we're all healthy-until the next cold hits.....

Comments

  1. I understand how you feel about asthma. I developed asthma back in 2001 due to a bad furnace filter that was never replaced, and living near a factory certainly didn't help.

    It is downright frustrating when one day you feel completely fine, and the next day you're struggling to even get a breathe in or out.

    I've found that most of the inhalers today don't work significantly like the old albuterol inhalers. It's scary to think you might have an asthma attack and your rescue inhaler doesn't work.

    Experts suggest avoiding the triggers, but everyone's triggers are different and avoidance isn't always so easy, is it?

    Let's hope and pray that one day, like cancer and aids, that a cure will come for asthma.

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  2. I agree, the unpredictability is what is scary. I have found that new inhalers are effective, but the propellant is softer, and many are used to the force of the old inhalers. Ask your pharmacist for ideas and make sure you are taking the right amount of puffs. We also use a nebulizer when the kids are really bad, it seems much more effective. Good luck! I am hoping for a cure one day too! And to think we passed this genetic defect onto our kids.....

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