Symptoms and treatment of asthma – Part 1

I have suffered from Asthma from birth. Now I have 3 out of 6 children with it. I was born and raised in rural Alaska and back then as far out as we lived there was really no treatment for it accept time and steam or a humidifier with some Vick's in it!

I can remember sitting in the small bathroom, leaning on my Mothers chest trying to breath calmly with her and the smell of Vick's vapo rub she put in a scalding hot shower to steam the room. Or a small cup of scalding hot coffee for the caffeine and steam. How incredibly hard it was and how badly it hurt to fight for every breath I could barely take.

As I grew older we moved to a bigger city but to no avail there was no treatment really and no one knew enough about it up there to help me any! My P.E. teachers harped on me to do things that would send me straight to the emergency room and put me out of school for days. My mother worked at a pharmacy and brought home an inhaler one day. Primatene mist! The most god awful tasting thing I had ever encountered! It made my heart beat so fast I thought it would come right out of my chest, My whole body shook like I was frigid and it felt like it was eating holes in my mouth. I reverted back to propping myself up with a pillow, humidifier with Vick's and steam after the first time using that inhaler.

Times are better now with inhalers like proventil and nebulizers for the home in severe cases. The telltale sign of my problem breathing and I use it to this day with my own children is when the area all around your mouth has a white circle, tight chested cough that produces no result, fatigue and chest pain. I personally prefer to solve these problems naturally so unless there is a severe attack in my home, we keep no pets in the home, there is no smoking in our home, I do not burn candles or in-cents, instead I keep a humidifier in the home with eucalyptus in it.

for problem breathing with colds, allergies, animals or exercise I always use the natural cures I have already spoke of. I only revert to the inhalers or nebulizer if it is absolutely necessary. I keep inhalers and nebulizers at the school for my children with doctors note and instruction for the nurse in case of emergency. It takes patients and sometimes persistence with the school as far as doctors notes for the medicines and the understanding of how to use the medicines for someone who does not know how to treat this ailment.

It is a frightening and painful experience, fighting with everything you have just to take a simple breath.For someone who does not know that feeling it is nearly impossible for them to understand the horror we are going through at that moment, and even harder yet for us to be patient with them in that situation. Everyone, weather they have asthma or not, needs to show absolute patience and be as calm as humanly possible when these attacks occur.