Jan
Jan, age 46, was diagnosed with asthma at age 4. She is white British, lives with her partner and works as a freelance Business Psychologist. Jan’s childhood was disrupted by regular asthma attacks. As a young adult the symptoms lessened and she thought she had grown out of it’, but in her mid 20’s her asthma flared up again. Nowadays Jan feels able to manage her asthma effectively and although she occasionally has attacks, she feels that the preventative medication she takes regularly helps to keep things under control.
Jan was diagnosed with asthma at the age of 4. She thinks that the trigger for this at the time was a pet rabbit that she may have been allergic to, but her symptoms also often coincided with the hay fever season. She was also affected by the change in season between autumn and winter when the weather became colder. During her early childhood she experienced asthma attacks regularly and she remembers missing a lot of school because she was often too ill to attend, and that the doctor used to visit sometimes three times a week to administer injections. She recalls that at the time she was the only child in the whole school who had asthma, whereas she says that nowadays there are far more children who are diagnosed with it. Her parents were quite protective and worried about her, and she remembers sometimes her mother having to rush to the local telephone box to call for help when she was unable to get her breath. Sometimes Jan felt left out of things as she wasn’t able to participate in sports or be able to visit friend’s houses where there were pets, but she says her friends and teachers were very supportive and helped her to catch up with schoolwork or visited her at home if she wasn’t able to go out. When she was about 8 she remembers being rushed to hospital in an ambulance and was put on a nebuliser to ease the symptoms, and since then she has been hospitalised with her asthma three times.
As a teenager and in her early 20’s Jan noticed the symptoms much less and she thought that she had grown out of’. During these times she used her inhalers infrequently, and now she looks back and can see that it’s very easy to stop using them when you feel well. However when she began working in a big city on a daily basis she found that the asthma was exacerbated again, which she thinks may be related to the pollution from the heavy traffic around where she worked.
Currently she uses a preventer inhaler (Serotide) which she uses every day – morning and evening, and she also takes her reliever inhaler (Ventolin) twice a day as instructed by her consultant. She also uses the reliever inhaler at times when her breathing becomes difficult. Sometimes if she has a bad cold or chest infection she may take a course of antibiotics which can help to relieve the symptoms more quickly, or if she is having an asthma attack she may increase the dose of the preventer inhaler for a few days until things settle down. Occasionally she has been prescribed a course of steroid tablets if the attack is particularly difficult to control. Recently she has started using the acu-haler which makes it easier to get the medication dosage straight into the lungs.
A few years ago Jan was referred to see a respiratory consultant as the medication she was taking didn’t seem to be controlling her asthma too well (Becotide), and he changed her onto the Serotide that she now takes. Since then she has been for 6 monthly reviews with the consultant, but because her asthma is now fairly well controlled she now only needs to visit her medical centre for an annual review and will only need to see the consultant again if her condition worsens. Jan has the flu jab every year, and was recently given a bone density scan as the regular use of steroids can increase the likelihood of osteoporosis. She has been advised that things are fine, but it would be a good idea to start doing weight bearing exercise of some kind to lessen the risk for the future, and to take a calcium supplement.
As an adult Jan experiences both wheezing and coughing, which can tend to become worse during the night. Her triggers have changed over the years and nowadays she can tolerate being near pets, but finds that the cold weather and having colds and chest infections tend to make her asthma symptoms appear. She also finds that news print will set off the asthma (possibly the chemicals in the ink). She is now able to tolerate flowers, but being near hay bales can set off the asthma. One thing that Jan has found helps is to have a drink of coke when she is feeling wheezy and unable to breath properly, and she has heard that the caffeine content of the drink can act as a decongestant.
Jan finds that she is able to manage her asthma by being careful about avoiding certain situations, but is able to do most things she wants to be able to do. She exercises regularly at the gym, but would avoid taking exercise outside if for instance the grass in the park had just been cut. She would also not be able to exercise during times when she was having an asthma attack which might last a few days or a couple of weeks.
Jan is self employed and is able to manage her asthma without it interfering with her work. Over recent years she has volunteered some of her time to work for Asthma UK as a way of giving something back’ as she feels that without the work of the voluntary sector the improvements in medication and information and support would not have advanced in the way that they have over recent times.