If the doctor gives you a prescription, TAKE IT!!!!!







I was talking to a woman at the gym this morning who has been out sick for a while with pneumonia. I told her to join the club!!

She asked how long it took me to feel better, I said it always takes longer when you have asthma. I'm still weak and not back to myself after 3 weeks. We started chit chatting and she said the doctor gave her an inhaler, but she doesn't want to use it because she might get thrush. She said the doctor told her to rinse her mouth out after she uses it. I told her not to worry, I've only had thrush once or twice from my inhaler, and I've had asthma all my life.

She said she can "feel" that all of the swelling is gone in her lungs. I told her that you CAN'T feel inflammation in your lungs. Here is a direct quote from Webmd. 

"Even when you feel well, your asthma hasn't gone away. Even if you can't feel it, your airways might still be inflamed."
Asthma Doc always says that if you use a rescue/emergency inhaler, all it does is "buy you time"  until you get the inflammation out of your lungs. I told her that she probably didn't have to use her inhaler all the time like I do, she should just use it until it was gone. I told her that the doctor gave it to her for a reason, so she needs to use it to get the swelling down in her lungs. Here's another quote from the Webmd site:

"Treating persistent asthma with only occasional puffs from a rescue inhaler is like dealing with a leaky pipe in your basement by mopping up the water on the floor. You're only thinking about the symptom and not treating the underlying cause. Over time, if asthma isn't well controlled it can damage your airways permanently."

I like my lungs, I would like them to keep breathing for me. And they can't do that if they have a build up of scar tissue from chronic inflammation.

Lesson: if your doctor prescribes medicine for you-take it!! You only have one set of lungs, you should take care of them. For those of us with asthma, we're a little protective of our lungs. We don't take them for granted because we know what it's like to not be able to breathe.

So, be the grown up that you are and take your medicine! 

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