Living With Asthma

I’ve had asthma for most of my life. Ever since I can remember. For most of my late 20’s I thought it was under control. But recently it seems to have gotten a lot worse. My allergies are often the cause of my asthma getting worse. So I have been taking allergy medicine since April. But I stopped taking my allergy medicine about two weeks ago and I haven’t had any allergy symptoms since that time.

The heat and humidity this weekend was extremely difficult on me. In these conditions I feel that the air is so heavy that I can’t breathe outside for even two minutes. Yesterday I went to work and the walk from my car to the office at 8am had me gasping and I could feel a tightening in my chest. I soon decided that I should go home and rest in front of some air conditioning and drink plenty of fluids.

Later in the day I ended up going to the emergency room at Harrisburg Hospital. I was still having some trouble breathing and every so often I would feel some pressure in my chest. They gave me a nebulizer treatment, ran a test on my heart to make sure nothing was wrong there, and gave me two Prednisone pills. I was breathing ok after that.

This morning I met with my doctor and we discussed my asthma. I am very aware of what causes my asthma to act up and do what I can to prevent those things. But for some reason my asthma is out of control. She asked me if I am under any stress. There are some things that stress me out but I don’t consider myself to be under a lot of pressure. But maybe I am miscalculating my own stress. Stress and anxiety can lead to asthma attacks. So we are going to try treating my stress and anxiety to see if that relieves my asthma symptoms. This weekend I will be starting Lexapro to see if that helps my anxiety.

As I drive down Front Street and see all of the people out walking their dogs, running, and riding bikes, I feel jealous that I can’t enjoy those things in my present state. Hopefully some day I will be able to enjoy these things again.