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My asthma story

Hey all, I have had asthma since I was about 10. I had allergies all my life before that. I am 49 so when I was first diagnosed there were no inhaled steroids available, so my Asthma Dr. would put me on steroid bursts way too often to control it. When I was 16 I stayed with a friend for a week while my mom and stepdad went on their honeymoon. My friend had cats and dogs and I ended up using my inhaler so much I almost died. I was at school and didn't want kids or teachers to know how bad I was so I overdosed on albuterol and ended up in the hospital for a week. I then ended up with Cushings Syndrome at age 19 for being on too many prednisone packs. I think it was about that time I got started on the first inhaled steroid. For a while my asthma was under control and I didn't require daily albuterol inhaler, but that only lasted a year or two. Since the age of 21 or so I have had to take my Proair(or Albuterol, Ventolin) inhaler every single day. I was on Advair forever, now I am on Breo daily. I am not sure why it is not controlled by the Advair or Breo. I think my lungs just got addicted to albuterol. I don't go anywhere without my proair and I carry it with me in my scrub pocket at work as well. I work as a Respiratory Therapist in a hospital. Since a young age I wanted to be a Respiratory Therapist to help people with breathing problems like myself. If I am in a house with cats it gets pretty bad. My son has a cat and refuses to get rid of it, so my visits have to be short because it makes me tight and wheezy and eyes itch, throat itches. I have found that most people just "don't get it" about asthma. People can be downright rude, even really nice people because they are clueless. I can't handle summer because of the humidity even though I love outdoors and hiking, biking, walking, etc. I just have no tolerance to being overheated and the humidity just suffocates me. I am active, an online health and fitness coach part time, but wish my body could handle outdoors better! I even lost 90 pounds a few years ago and it did not really improve my asthma at all surprisingly. Thanks for reading! I hope to learn more and educate more people on asthma and how serious it really is, especially parents who don't understand how serious it is when their kids have it!

 

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