On Asthma

camerapits:

What some people don’t realize is just how frightening and restricting asthma is.

Asthma is more than a “nerd thing” that is characterized by the L-shaped device that lets out puffs of gas.

Rather, it is an all-encompassing overshadowing demon. It keeps you from doing what you love by turning the one thing you take for granted away from you: the ability to breathe easily.

Have you ever started choking? Had a wheeze or cough? It’s frustrating, isn’t it? Now take that feeling, stretch it out over 30-seconds to minutes, and it’s terrifying. It gets worse with that stress. You fight for every single breathe you take, and your vision begins to blur, your chest hurts, and your head pounds. Exercise is even more difficult; the effects of breath loss is compounded by your body’s need for more oxygen, forcing you to breathe harder, which in turn turns up your stress and effort, and then finally makes the breathing even harder.

I’ve almost passed out because of it. I was out in the track field without my inhaler because of difficulty in getting it.

It’s scary that I’ve gotten only this far in life and I’ve already felt the lack of control and stability of breathing numerous times.

So every time I look at my little, light-weight L-shaped savior, I say a little prayer in gratitude that medicine has allowed me to do everything I do. It let me hike along the Appalachian Trail, ski down powdery slopes, and travel through smoky cities. It lets me peacefully sleep at night instead of waking up in the middle of the night gasping for air.

It’s terrifying. I hope none of you will have to go through what I feel. I hope you’ll never have to see your son or daughter tear up and struggle just to breathe. And I hope that one day there will be an affordable treatment for asthma that anyone can afford and is easy to access.