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Asthma From a Patients Perspective

Asthma From a Patients PerspectiveAsthma From a Patients Perspective is  a Problem for Millions of people and if you have ever experienced an asthma attack then you know how scary it can be. The first time I had the experience,  I was so tired, could not get enough air. I really was not functioning at even 80%. I drove myself to the hospital, which was not a good thing to do.

However I was probably worse than someone who had been drinking in terms of reaction time and ability to deal with emergency driving situations. Not a smart thing to have done. I could have easily had an accident or gone through a red light. This is not a good situation to be in. It would have been better to call a friend to drive. This is Asthma From a Patients Perspective.

Asthma From a Patients Perspective

The worst part is that I really did not know what was happening to me at the time and why I could not get enough air. I found that I could only walk about 50 feet before I had to stop and rest. This is really scary for a young guy who is fit and active!

Turns out that there are millions of people in the US and Canada that have Asthma and suffer from it on a routine basis. Going to emergency rooms at the hospital is not fun, the waiting, the explanations , the assessments and being treated although the relief is truly huge, when you can breathe, your head clears and you can function again.

What Brings on an Asthma Attack

There are many different trigger factors that will bring on asthma. In my case it is a combination of pollen’s, dust, mold and specifically aerosols from hair spray and deodorizer. In my case I have a lot of allergies to dust, pollen and mold, but it was the hotel deodorizer that really put me over the top.

There are many people with asthma in the US and Canada and many visit the hospital every year to get help and treatment. Unfortunately there does not seem to be any magic pill that you can take to be cured. They can treat the symptoms and make you feel a little better for a while, but they cannot cure the underlying problem. Asthma From a Patients Perspective is really scary.

Why does your body react to something in the air or something you eat? How can you stop it from ever happening again? All they can do is tell you to avoid those things that trigger a reaction in your system or give you something that will help to manage the symptoms.

Asthma seems to affect all races and colors of people.  Although Asians seem to have this problem a little less than whites and black people apparently have more reactions than white people do.

Asthma Rates Higher in Northeast

Were you live can sometimes make a difference, especially if things like pollen, mold and dust are the triggers for your asthma attacks. Reports have shown that people living in the north eastern part of the continent are more prone to asthma attacks. If you are lucky enough to live in the desert areas of the south east, you may be better off when it comes to how many asthma attacks you experience. Dryer air , less mold, fewer trees means less pollen and there may be more dust, but them you stay inside on windy days.

Asthma From a Patients Perspective – Triggers

For me it is all about avoiding triggers. I learned pretty quickly that I would get much worse when I was exposed to aerosol sprays, particularly the kind that many hotels use to make a room smell nice. Even scented candles will trigger a response.

We were visiting a friend one night and she likes to have scented candles burning all of the time to make the house smell nice. By the end of the night I could hardly breathe. She does not light these candles any more when we are visiting!

We live in the north east and try to get away to the deserts of Arizona and California in the late winter. This is prime pollen and mold time back in the northeast and if I can avoid these triggers I will. For many people without the means to get away there are other ways to avoid pollen and mold that is in the air we breathe.

Avoiding Triggers

Stay inside. Use filters on your furnace which are changed regularly. Keep the windows closed. Take a shower at night before going to bed. Even wear a mask are ways to reduce the pollen intake. Obviously it depends on how strongly your body reacts to these triggers and which ones.

Takethe time to figure out which ones your body does not like. Then avoiding them is well worth the time spent. Go see an allergist and get tested. He or she will be able to tell you which allergens you most react to and when to avoid  them.

Educate yourself about the avoidance mechanisms and the treatments that you should consider. Get tested for asthma to determine at what stage you are at. Find out what the short term and long term treatments are for you.

Follow the doctor’s advice. Trying to second guess the doctor usually does not work. In my case I got better and then decided that I could stop taking the longer term puffers that I was on. Bad idea, because my asthma came back quite quickly!

Asthma From a Patients Perspective – Summary

  • Get tested by an allergists
  • Avoid your triggers as much as possible
  • Find out what you need to do to decrease the chances of an attack
  • Take your puffers and manage your asthma
  • Educate yourself on the disease, symptoms and solutions
  • There is no cure, but you can manage the problem well

If you have read this post and would like to contribute, please leave a comment that will help our readers. We all can use any help we can get to avoid this problem or at least make it livable. Spam comments will be auto deleted.

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One Response to “Asthma From a Patients Perspective”

  1. the hot weather of the summer of 2012 has made my asthma really difficult. I continue to have problems with attacks and a lot of coughing. Wish there was more that I could do beside taking all of this medicine

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