Is there 12-step for Asthma? Maybe I need it…

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My name is Leanne, and I’m an asthmatic.

Until 3 weeks ago, I didn’t know I had asthma. At least, not really.

I mean, I knew I had ‘exercise induced asthma’, but we’re talking a slight cough if I had to run for a bus. Nothing serious, nothing that needed an inhaler. Just something that bothered me now and then when I was at the gym, but basically disappeared on its own.

Cut to 4 weeks ago. People kept saying to me, “Do you have asthma?” “NO!”, I would answer. I had a ‘phlegm problem’ (which I still have — anybody know how to REALLY get rid of catarrh???), I was a bit breathless after those stairs/that hill/that walk, whatever. But no, I DON’T have asthma.

And then, I had lunch with a friend. A very caring, concerned friend, whom I hadn’t seen for about 6 months, by the way. All through lunch and afterwards, she mostly seemed to be saying, “I think there’s something wrong with you…” And finally, after several hours, she pointed out that I couldn’t get through a sentence without having to gasp for breath. (Okay, yeah, I’m a bit thick about medical stuff when it’s happening to me. I’m GREAT with anybody else’s crisis — just give me a call!) “Please go get yourself checked out,” she said. “Call your doctor, or better yet, go to the hospital.”

I waved off her objections, of course (this is ME we’re talking about) and then….

I ended up in A&E (the Emergency Room) the next day. For five hours. While the doctors tried to prove I had a chest infection, and yet couldn’t. And then diagnosed me….with asthma. *sigh*

And then, as a follow-up, my own doctor signed me off work for 2 weeks. “You are a very sick girl,” she told me. “You need to take this very seriously.”

It has been a debilitating experience. I never knew such little things could wear me out as they have. And, believe me, when you can’t breathe, you can’t do anything else either. But, after steroids and antibiotics (in case there was an infection they couldn’t find) and inhalers, I am better. Finally. And unbelievably, I’m an asthmatic.

Who knew? And who would have believed it?

Certainly not me.

Yet here I am. I am an asthmatic. And I must go forth with that always in mind. Talk about a trip.