talkrespiratory

I have never been very active throughout my life. That all changed when I enrolled at a school were you HAD to be able to run 2- 4 miles without stopping. Of course they failed to mention this in the admissions department. A few weeks before I went there for the first time I started to run on my own. It was hard work. The toughest part was yet to come. I came to my new school and its based off of the military. So they get pretty mad if you just stop running. I should have stopped sooner. I don't know how it started or why but I started to breathe heavily, gasping for air. When we stopped I could barely stand on my own. I kept blacking out. No one even seemed to notice but I made it back to my room, just barely. This taught me never to push myself to passing out. Until it nearly happened again. This time I was rushed to the infirmary. That was when I discovered that I had asthma. So my advice to you is, if you ever feel like you are being pushed too far just stop no matter if you have asthma or not. For asthma remember that pushing yourself too far can lead to injury or even death. I wish I knew then what I know now. I could have died then, without knowing what I had. It might sound silly to some people but I think it’s really important that you listen to your own body even if other people think that giving up is a sign of weakness. But once you do stop use everything you've got to get back in there.

My daughter has asthma – she had it as a baby very mildly and then it seemed to disappear. She’s now 12 and over the past couple of years the asthma has returned but she only really seems to suffer when she’s doing sport. She love all sport and the asthma’s not put her off at all. Our GP has prescribed an inhaler which she uses just before she’s about to do any sport and this has significantly reduced the mild asthma attacks she was getting. I used to think if you had asthma sport was out of the question, but this is clearly not the case. It’s all about keeping it under control which we are managing to do and not letting asthma get the better of you!