Hello

Hi All,

I have been diagnosed with asthma t a few months ago and I must admit it was a shock.I always though of asthma as something kids got and they 'wheezed' as they took breaths.

Well I do not generally do that. no mine shows as an uncontrolable cough that takes over. That andpains in my chest (NOT heart!!). It can ffel like I have just been 'speared' by someone.

I spent the summer on high doses of Predniselone (sp?) and not being ablew to walk more then a couple of hundred yards before being exhausted.

When they said 'you have asthma', I though NO WAY! If I have asthma, I'll show my A** to the Pope!'

So now I am awaiting my invite to the Vatican lol.

But looking back my dad had asthma for a lot of his life and everyone thought it was a 'smokers cough'. Only after this happening to me did it make sense.

I have suffered from a bad cough for years but put it down to meds, the cold, you names it!

It is surprising how even the most 'level headed' person can 'justify' something away.

So now I take my brown inhaler twice a day (four puffs at the moment!) and keep my blue near at hand. I needed the blue one two days ago but after a couple of puffs, I was ok again.

I have worked nearlly all my working life in air conditioned clean rooms/computer rooms. I do not think that they have helped me.

It has been an eye opener to me and I am sure that a lot of people do not realise just how wide ranging asthma is and how it can affect you. Reading some posts on here, I think I have got off lightly. I have only had one year of really bad times (bad enough to think about stopping (life)). Some it seems have it bad all the time.

Be well my friends

Alan

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Hi Alan,

I'm also a newbie that was diagnosed with asthma last year. Came as a shock to me also as I'd been active doing exercise nearly all my life without problems. I play a lot of squash and early last year I started to notice that I was struggling to breathe after about 10-15 mins. Soon after I developed pains in my chest and ended up in hospital starpped to an ECG machine.

Thankfully not a heart attack but asthma instead. Was given a brown inhaler (clenil), the blue one and a dose of pred. This seemed to work and I was fine for about 6 months. Once I felt well I didn't take the brown inhaler every day, and dismissed the asthma as something that would be ok as long as I stayed fit enough. I now realise this was a big mistake.

Last October I had another bad attack and ended up back in hospital. Doses of antibiotics and pred didn't seem to help this time and so I was referred to a respitory consultant. Lots of test and scans later it was confirmed as uncontrolled astham and more severe than first thought.

Am now on seretide (2 puffs, twice a day) and carry my blue inhaler everywhere I go. I'm learning to control my asthma better and have a review every month.

I found this website about 3 months ago and it's been brilliant for finding out info and reading stories of other sufferers. I now understand a lot more about asthma and know I'll never take it lightly again. I also feel extremely lucky compared to other people who post on this site, all of whom I hope get better.

I've not got back onto the squash court yet but that's my goal in the next few months, lungs permitting!

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Welcome to the site guys .... Hope you find the info and support that u need . Having asthma can be daunting at first. Best thing is for you to learn what triggers /causes your lungs or asthma to be worse . And what to do when you become unwell or have an attack..... The thing about asthma is that treatments and information is always changing so your always learning new things so don't try and learn everything at once it only fries the brain .... Take care , keep well