When were you first diagnosed with asthma?

[CalvinHU]

What triggered the diagnosis/doctor's visit?

Comment and interact below

[Beasley63]

I was diagnosed March 2018. I kept being sick a lot and have bronchitis and coughing a lot. Every time I would come in contact with something scented it would get major worse.

[FearNot in reply to Beasley63]

Fumes trigger my asthma also. I have a hard time with perfumes. Forget walking past the laundry soap aisle in the store. Your diagnosis was fairly recent. How are you adjusting?

[EmmaF91]

I was 13 and a gymnast. I gradually became unable to complete routines due to SoB. Had a constant phelm-y cough too 😅.

[FearNot]

We were on the way home from church one glorious day. Trouble breathing and being hooked to oxygen were the last things on my mind. That all changed when my husband drove the car through a field yellow with Scotch Broom blossoms. I wasn't wheezing by the time I saw the ER doctor. He diagnosed me with mild asthma and told me to see my regular doctor if it happened again.

[Carakraft]

I have had asthma since I was a small child...I remember going to my family doctor for shots that would help my cough 😊

[Bobcat_44]

I was diagnosed in 2014 after a bout with pneumonia. Right after the pneumonia I started to cough every morning to the point of vomiting, couldn't exercise or even run short distances because of this cough. Shortly after this the dyspnea came...

[birdlover18]

I was diagnosed when I was maybe 10 or 11 (I’m 23 now) at that point my asthma was only bothered by laughing/crying and allergens such as cats/dogs and dust. As I got older my asthma progressed and now I have exercised induced asthma and my allergy induced asthma is much worse. My mom was the one who had me visit an allergist when I was a kid because of the wheezing.

[FearNot in reply to birdlover18]

Sorry to hear your asthma has worsened. Here's hoping it improves.

[lee99]

I was first diagnosed about 25 years ago as a small child, I was coughing and wheezing a lot, especially after running around. After dad gave up smoking (shortly after my diagnosis) my asthma almost vanished, until about 3 years ago. One of the main triggers was major building work on our house, which released a lot of dust, but i now seem to be much more prone to allergies

[FearNot in reply to lee99]

I too, spent many years symptom free, only to see my asthma worsen due to wildfire smoke. It sounds like environmental factors are the culprit with you also.

[Kitten-kat23]

I was 11/12. I had just won a badminton match. Doctors diagnosed nervous asthma at the time.

[pmh18623]

I was diagnosed in 1997 at 43. My primary care physician believed it was a combination of the damp, old musty buiding I worked in and the increase in grass pollen that summer due to heavier than normal rainfall.

Breathing became very difficult. As I had never had asthma before, it was frightening to suddenly have severe asthma.

[FearNot in reply to pmh18623]

I can well imagine. I had a similar exacerbation. I hope you're doing better!

[pmh18623 in reply to FearNot]

Much better compared to then, except for this summer.

[Carakraft in reply to pmh18623]

I know it was so frightening! How are you doing now?

[pmh18623 in reply to Carakraft]

It has been very sporatic with occasional moderate to severe flares until a moderate exacerbation in mid May. I have had SOB ever since.

The wild fire smoke this summer made every day activities an endurance contest. I am glad that is past, but now being referred to second cardiologist for my SOB and transient low oxygen since the PFT only showed mild small airway obstruction.

I no longer get frightened, just frustrated.

[Minushabens Asthma Captain]

I was diagnosed around age 3 (probably around 1967). My dad was a very severe asthmatic so the GP at the time was probably expecting it. However, he was of the view that I'd grow out of it, & that giving children inhalers (they were, not that I ever feel overly inclined to defend him, relatively new inventions at the time) would get them addicted & stop them fighting it off.

I remember having an awful episode around 1970ish, after being in a neighbour's house with cats. My mum thought I was crying & playing up; luckily the neighbour was a nurse & recognised it as an allergy, & cats have remained right at the top of my trigger list ever since, including responsibility for my worst near-death experience with asthma as an adult.

Although my dad persuaded the GP to give me an inhaler eventually, I didn't get any sort of proper treatment until my mid-20s (after the cat episode in fact), by which time I think a lot of damage had been done to my lungs which hit me hard when I reached my 50s, & is still now a big problem for me.

But, although it's been a curse on my life, I am a profound believer that asthma teaches you to be a fighter & a survivor, and it won't get the better of me yet

[Carakraft in reply to Minushabens]

It definitely has made me stronger and stand a little taller😊

[IChoose]

At four years old I woke up clutching my throat and could not breathe. That began what was then called croup which lasted to age 9. One hospitalization with "infectious croup." It is 50 years and I still have PTSD from it. In midlife my asthma returned and has been dangerous at times and hard to control.

[campisa Asthma Captain]

I was diagnosed with asthma just this year around Valentine's day to be exact. So, it is a day, I will never forget. I went to my pulmonologist and she gave me the allergy test. I came out allergic to every tree and plant, mold and all animals. I was flabbergasted to say the least because I am over 50. In any case, upon taking the medications, I fell like my old self again, and for that, I was glad to know what my truly ailments were.

[VinswaynW]

Coughing & wheezing at the age of 5 years old. The latter years of my saw saw an increase in specialized medications that really helped me breathe better. Does anyone here remember taking Tedral tablets & Primeatine mist? from age 5 to 20 years old I was on these over the counter medications. Then the meth scourge took over and they quit selling it over the counter back in the mid to late eighties. Sad.

[HikesWithDogs]

I was diagnosed at age 9 about year after my family moved from Virginia to Arizona. That was 45 years ago. Asthma treatments back then weren’t the best. The medication I started with was Marax and it has been taken off the market. It was definitely an upper. I could do math problems really quickly when I was on it. The first inhaler I had used a capsule with powder in it that was crushed an inhaled. There were many nights of sitting in the bathroom filled with steam trying to breath better and trips to the ER. Things are much better now.