Accepting Asthma at a Young Age

I was diagnosed with asthma young and hayfever allergies when I was 5 years old. My family and I were at a beautiful park with a couple of ponds. I saw some pretty wildflowers by one of the ponds and decided to go pick some for my mom. By the time I gave them to her, she had noticed that I was wheezing and coughing a lot. She also noticed that I was developing hives all over my arms, legs, and pretty much all over my body. My parents rushed me to the ER and while there, I was given a shot of adrenaline and a had a nebulizer treatment. I had to stay overnight in the hospital for observation. They used Calamine Lotion on my hives and told my parents where to buy some. That is when I was diagnosed with asthma and was lined up with an allergist appointment.

Seeing an allergist

At the allergist's, I remember laying on my stomach and had about 100 different allergy tests done on my back, all kinds of different grass allergy tests on one arm, and all kinds of tree allergy tests done on the other arm. I can only imagine how my parents were trying to keep a 5-year-old from not itching. So I found out that l had asthma and I was allergic to all types of trees, all types of grass, straw/hay, pollen, indoor/outdoor molds, dust mites, insect stings, chemical scents from perfumes, household chemicals in cleaning supplies, small and large ragweed, wildflowers, medication-wise: sulfa, all pet hair and a whole slew of others.

Finding the right treatment

Later in life, I found out that I am allergic to all types of beer and all red wines. I went through a total of 13 years of allergy shots, but I stopped at the age of 18 as they did not work on me. After that, I pretty much lived on Benadryl. I had my Ventolin Inhaler for my asthma. My asthma can be affected by extreme cold, hot, and humid temperatures, exercise, and hayfever allergies. So if one starts up, the other is sure to follow. Over the past 20 years, my asthma has been well controlled with Advair and Dulera and my hayfever allergies have been well controlled with Flonase. I still have and use my rescue Ventolin Inhaler and Benadryl as needed.

Accepting my asthma

We've come a long way from when I was first diagnosed with asthma and hayfever allergies, that's for sure. Thank God! The main way that I can tell I'm about to have an asthma attack is that I itch like crazy under my chin, my upper neck, and both of my earlobes. Then I start to wheeze and cough up thick mucus. I know, gross! I still gag when that happens. I now know what I need to do to lessen the asthma attack: use my rescue Ventolin Inhaler and have a nebulizer treatment ready to go, since I usually need one. I would definitely have to say that my asthma and hayfever allergies have been pretty bad, but I don't let it take over my life. I just know to make sure I use my Dulera, two puffs in the morning and two puffs in the evening, use my Flonase, two squirts in each nostril once daily, and always have my rescue Ventolin Inhaler and Benadryl close by just in case I need them. I hope I didn't bore you guys to death. Thanks for reading!