It got so bad that I actually ended up in the emergency room because doctors thought I may have broken my ribs from coughing so hard. It turned out that my ribs were bruised from coughing.
By the beginning of November, I had seen a pulmonologist. He gave me a lung function test and told me my asthma was completely out of control. I was shocked. My first reaction was, “But I don’t have asthma!” The doctor said, “You do now!” He told me that some people can develop asthma after having a bad lung infection.
I had never heard of anyone developing asthma as an adult before, so the diagnosis came as a surprise. So did my first asthma attack. Kids who grew up with it know what it feels like, but for me it came out of nowhere. It felt like my chest was in a vise; the pressure on both sides felt like someone was crushing my chest.
"I was on so many steroids I could be a New York Yankee"
My breathing was horrible when I was first diagnosed. I was wheezing so loudly at night, it would wake me up. I couldn’t exert myself in any way without getting short of breath. They treated me with so many steroids, I used to say they should make me an honorary Yankee. (That’s just my joke, though; I know the inflammation-fighting drugs used to treat asthma are corticosteroids, a class of drug completely different from the anabolic steroids sometimes abused by athletes.)
After the corticosteroids helped improve my lung function, my doctor prescribed Symbicort, a kind of drug called a bronchodilator. It is taken in an inhaler and helps relax airway muscles. I now use it twice a day. I also take the allergy medicine Allegra-D in the morning to make sure I don’t get congested during the day. If I get even a little bit congested, it makes my asthma worse. At night I also take Singulair, a pill that helps prevent asthma symptoms by blocking the chemicals the body releases in response to asthma triggers. If I get sick, doctors will put me right back on prednisone, a powerful corticosteroid, to prevent my asthma from flaring up.
I have to take my bronchodilator inhaler with me everywhere, just in case of emergencies. I have one in the car, one in my desk, one in my purse, and one in my gym bag. I have to use it before I exercise and when I feel an asthma attack coming on.
