When the doctor told me I had asthma a couple of weeks back, I was – to put it mildly – giddy with excitement (see last week’s post for a bit of background). I felt like I might be able to get a new lease of life, if you will. However, when I announced the news to family and friends, their reaction was unanimous. “Oh no, poor you!”
Which got me thinking along quite different lines…Are there things I can no longer do? Things I’m no longer ‘allowed’ to do? Can I still go on the rollercoasters at Tivoli? Foods I should avoid? Foods I should eat? If it’s windy, can I go outside?! Eek! I even caught myself sitting up in bed at 10.30pm one night last week, iPhone in hand, checking a website about whether it was safe for people with asthma to scubadive… For Pete’s sake, I don’t even like snorkelling or, for that matter, swimming in areas where it’s all dark on the seabed…scary! There’s no way you’d get me on a boat with a gas tank on my back, asthma or no asthma! 😉 [For the record, I closed down the browser at that point so, if you want to find out about scubadiving with asthma, you’ll have to go google.]
Two weeks into the (brown inhaler) medicine and I’m beginning to feel a difference. I run around at home a lot in the morning and I feel ‘lighter’ somehow. I used the blue inhaler a lot the first few days but don’t feel the need for it now unless I’m going out to run or on my bike. Or if I’m excited! 😉 Have had a few headaches (not a common thing for me) – no doubt a reaction to all the drugs sloshing around in my system – but they seem to have stopped again. And the good news? My sweetie friend C and I did a long run last Monday. I took a puff of my blue inhaler before we started, halfway through and again at the end. Guess what…we ran 6k! The longest distance I’ve ever run! 😀
This is my sweetie friend C. The beach is straight ahead.
So maybe a life with asthma is going to be okay after all? Check back with me next week to find out!
Have a marvelous Monday! 🙂
Oh yes, like I said, KNOWING what's wrong and what to do about it is much better than having the problem in the first place. 🙂 You've seen a dr, you have the meds you need so there pretty much isn't a limit on what you can do…. Of course, that depends on what triggers your asthma. I think I said last week, for me it's cold, damp weather. I don't stay inside (I'd be home all the time!) but I know on days like that if I'm doing anything outside there's a chance I could "freeze up" lol. So, I take the blue "rescue" inhaler with me, just in case.
Asthma was pretty scary when I was a kid. Back then you weren't allowed to run, play, or do just about anything.
Today? Just keep the "rescue" inhaler with you and you'll be ok.
I agree. Just remember to have your ventolin puffer with you at all times. I have very mild asthma, probably only have an attack once every few months, but I have been caught without it and that can be scary. There are some medications, even over the counter ones such as asprin that doctors advise we shouldn't take. It sounds like you have a good doctor though that has got you on the right path. I hear swimming's good too… Many top Aussie swimmers took up the sport because of their asthma 🙂
Thanks for the feedback! 🙂 I feel like a fish out of water because for me, asthma is the kind of thing you're diagnosed with as a kid – not at my [ahem] age! 😀
A relevant but strangely ignored or not generally known fact about asthma and breathing troubles is that the change between weak (asthmatic) and strong (healthy) breathing is dependent on abdominal muscle tension. Slackening the muscles here causes abysmally weak and asthmatic breathing. Instead of describing an asthma attack as being like breathing through a straw (57,00 Google hits), attempting to breathe vigorously with relaxed abdominal muscles provides a more genuine illustrative example. Training the muscles, for example by “abdominal hollowing” (see Web articles) produces an antiasthmatic effect. Abdominal muscle tension plays a prominent part in Asian martial arts.
So it is fair to assume that there is a natural breathing spectrum with an asthmatic tendency at one end and Ku Fu or Karate breathing at the other end. For a few words on the Japanese version of Asian breathing see lrz.de/~s3e0101/webserver/webdata/OBT.pdf
I personally tend to breathe asthmatically after an evening meal or in pollen-laden air. Breathing powerfully into my lower abdomen with tensed muscles provides an effective cure for me. But then I’ve always been sceptical about medical wisdom on asthma: such a paradoxical and doctor-baffling increase in the last 40 years with modern, merely symptomatic inhalers. Respectfully, Richard Friedel