Fed up with asthma!

Hey everyone,

Im new on here but have had asthma for a few years now. Im a student and play for my College's lacrosse team... (I know crazy!!) But anyway I ve always managed to do lots of sport and exersise at a high level without many problems as it was very very mild asthma. I LOVE sport and cant live without it despite the facct that my asthma mainly seems to be triggered by exercise! Anyway I dont know why but this year seems to have been a very bad one in terms of the old asthma and I ve been having lots of problems with it. Back in November I had the paramedics out at a match and was quite poorly for a while afterwards. Was then given a preventer (can't remember which one!! :)) and I was a bit better over christmas. Then when I came back to college this term I caught a virus in the first week and was agian quite ill with asthma being a bit rebellious and I was given seretide instead. Once again I got better and then naturally, had several bad attacks during more matches which has resulted in me being dropped from the team due to my ""lack of fitness"" and ""timewasting"". On top of this I then developed another virus and I was then given a higher strength of seretide and pred and a peak flow meter to help. That was about 2 weeks ago and am feeling a bit better but still not great.

I know I dont have severe asthma like I m guessing lots of you do on here but recently Ive been really down about it all. Am fed up of going back to GP and I get the impression that she thinks Im making it up... which just adds to the frustration! I hate not having lacrosse to take out my frustration on and am so annoyed at the asthma. I dont understand why this year has been so rubbish I am normally hardly ever ill. My peak flow was origionaly at about 520 and I haven't seen it go above 290 in the two weeks. Im on the verge of just giving up on it all because it feels like nothing is working. Im constantly exhausted and have aching lungs/ribs despite having done no exercise in ages.

I am very sorry for the long post... I genuinly didnt think I had this much to rant about!! just wanted some reassurance etc. as am not having the best first year at uni!!!

Thanks

Natasha

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hi Natasha,

i too love my sport and exercise, and know how you must be feeling not being able to do the sport at a level you are used to, i used to play a lot of tennis, and when i broke my wrist i was so keen to keep playing i played left handed! lol,

for the frustration thing, have you tried a swing ball?, it doesnt require too much exertion, or space but you can do it alone, it works wonders for me.

on the asthma front i have been helped emmensly from the tablet Montelukast or Singulair, it is a tablet you take at night and works well for exercise indused asthma, ask gp if you can try it, you may then get your control back and not need so much seretide,

keep perservering with it for the time being, if you cant get much joy from your gpask to see a respiratory consultant, if you didnt get one being in a & e a few times.

good luck,

keep exercising in any way you feel you can, those happy hormones you get from it really do help,

george xx

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hi natasha, realy sorry to hear you're having a tough time. Picking up bugs seems to be a reall problem, I know it was for me at the end of last year, colds and chest infections prevented me from doing the sports I enjoy, but have since the start of this year been trying several things, and so far been OK, actualy better than OK.

1st was buying a humidifier, this was to keep the air in the house moist, as cold air is dry and makes the throat dry, which means you pick up virus quicker.

2nd is i've been using a sinus rinse nightly

3rd, taking a 1000mg daily of vitamin C

All these together has worked for me, I'd try the vitamin C though, it will help your body recover, and do remember dot to stress yourself out doing too much, it takes the body at least 6 weeks to recover from most infections.

chris

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Thank you for your replies, am now taking lots of vitamin c and has made me feel a lot better. I also did my first bit of lacrosse since... which resulted in a lot of wheezing, but I felt good! Have got my asthma review soon so hopefully will get it sorted then, but until then just taking things slowly! Does anyone else seem to get really sad/ a bit depressed about their asthma? I dont know whether it was the pred or not being able to do sport etc. but I've been really low for about a week now. I am just so annoyed at my lax coaches. They seem to think its my fault and that I can just 'stop' having an attack. Im trying to tell them Im alright and can to some sport but now they're stopping me permanently playing because they can 'tell' when Im wheezing... in otherwords theyre covering there own backs! It doesnt help that my team now seem to be doing better without me and I keep being told how fantastic they play! I just seem to be finding it quite hard to deal with at the moment... which of course means that the asthma plays up when I get myself stressed resulting in more stress etc etc. the viscious cycle!

Anyway thanks so much for your help I will ask about singulair next time,

natasha