It sucks. The end.

Just kidding. Living with asthma does indeed suck though. I was diagnosed with asthma when I was 4 years old. My mom had already lost a daughter (More in a blog post here: ) and when I was sick and wasnt getting any better she had to know why.

I was so young when this happened but my mom has told me stories and there was photos of when I was in the hospital. I was in there for nearly a month right around Christmas. When she had first taken me to the hospital apparently I was given 13 or 14 masks in a row. This was something they strapped to your face (Not nearly as bad as I can explain it) which had special liquid that was turned into a gas that you breathed in. It was super challenging for me to breath. My parents begged them to take me home for Christmas because having to deal with this in her first daughter she knew how hard it was to have a child in the Hospital for the holidays. I was only then allowed to come home to relax when my parents had gotten their own system to deliver the mask. I remember that as I was growing up and routinely sick around Christmas (I was allergic to Christmas trees, See the blog for that here: ) That I would continuesly be getting up every 4 hours with either my mom or dad to sit on their lap and have the mask administer the medication.

Growing up as a child, I loved the hospital. Going in with asthma I never had to really be poked with needles or anything. I had to have some oxygen machines on my finger and things but never was I poked and prauded with things. I also loved the fact that I was given popsicles to eat since I would be coughing so much my throat was a bit dry. And on top of it all, having a younger brother and sister, I loved the attention! It was nice that also when I would go to the hospital with my mom more often than not we would be taken in right away due to it being breathing issues. That was a great thing instead of waiting to be seen for hours and hours. As I look back now as an adult, I do anything to avoid going to the hospital. I do not want to be there under any circumstances not to mention there probably is times that I should be going but I avoid it and hope I get better.

I would say that there is people with far worse asthma than myself. However when I get bad and are in the middle of a sickness or attack it is never fun. Something as enjoyable as laughing could put me into an asthmatic attack where I am barely able to breath. Growing up as a teenager if I was walking too fast to school I would start to cough so much that I would throw up. Same with laughing or talking or being too loud. I would constantly have to check myself and relax my body to stop the coughing fits and hopefully it will pass without running to the bathroom and coughing.

As far as medications go, I was always on puffers. I started with the blue and orange ones (Forgive me for not knowing the older names because this was so long ago). they were used with the tube since I was so young it helped to make sure i was getting a full mouth full before breathing it in. After that I moved up to a brown and blue inhaler. These were the “L” shaped ones where you push the top and they have a burst of medication that you breath in. After this I was moved up to turbo inhalers which have a powder medication in the bottom of them. You simple twist the bottom and you breath out away from the opening and then you breath in. Twisting the bottom with each dose. I started on the blue and brown one of these. Currently I am on a turbo inhaler that is red called Symbacort. I should be taking this every day in the morning and at night which I don’t and should really try to however not having a family doctor here I really need to conserve how often I use it since I don’t have any refills. Lastly, by extreme emergency’s I am put on a medication called predisone. This is given to people who have cancer and a wide arrange of illnesses. It is basically a steroid for your lungs. I get this when things are very bad and my puffer would not help. My family doctor has always said to me, if I start to feel sick take my turbo-haler every 4-6 hours. If I do this for 4-5 days and feel no better and are starting to feel worse, I need to get a predisone prescription. Luckily, since moving to Quebec I have only needed it once and the walk in doctor we went to trusted my judgement and prescribed me this. Most walk-in doctors would try to give me an antibiotic which did nothing and I would end up back at my family doctor with him wondering why I am this bad! Normally a walk in wont prescribe it since it is a steroid for your chest and they don’t know your file even though I know and have told them it really is needed! The only time I get this is if my doctor so happens to be the walk in doctor and I am able to get in to see him.

Living with Asthma sucks. There is no way around it. However for the amount of time I am sick it really isnt that bad. I just have to be mindful and really know my body and symptoms so that I don’t let it get that bad. I know my aunt also has Asthma which is a bit more tricker than myself. She is more sensitive to scents and can get sick easier than myself. I consider myself lucky in terms of how manageable my asthma is, There is a lot of people who are unable to do a lot or medications have no effect on them either.

Do you or someone you know have Asthma?
Do they have trouble managing the symptoms?

Let me know in the comments below!

-StaySeeJ