Jane Z
Jane, age 60, was diagnosed with asthma age 1 year old. She is white British, single and lives alone. She worked as a civil servant for many years but retired on medical grounds at age 50. She has recently started working as a part time administrator. Over the years Jane’s life and opportunities have been restricted at times by her condition, although she is now much more able to manage the condition and has had periods where things have been relatively stable. Jane has what is known as catamenial asthma, which is related to the female hormones around the menstrual cycle, and also allergic asthma related primarily to dust.
Jane has had asthma for as long as she can remember and thinks she was about age one when diagnosed. She remembers being treated as a frail child and was brought up to do things indoors that did not require over exertion. She had her first hospital admission due to asthma when she was 5 and remembers it as a very unhappy time during which she attempted to run away. She lost a lot of her schooling through ill- health and was reliant on her friends to help her catch up on lost work. At the time the only medication given was a hand held nebulizer that was used with a drug called Neo-epinina, then later she was given steroids in tablet form which she remembers made her feel hyper’. She veered from feeling reasonably well when on medication, to being back to square one again’when she stopped taking the medication. During her teenage years her condition worsened and at age 14 she was absent from school for a full six months including 3 months in hospital where she stayed in a geriatric ward which she found very distressing. Keeping up to date with her friends was very difficult at this time and she felt frustrated that she was unable to join in with their activities and going out.
Although she was offered a place at university Jane was told at the time that she was too ill to go, and eventually took a job with the civil service, but it took a long while for her to be given a permanent post as she had to take quite a lot of time out of work due to asthma attacks.
When she was 25 she had a very serious asthma attack during which she went into cardiac arrest and was again admitted to hospital. Luckily she had been at the doctor’s surgery at the time and so was treated quickly; she was told that she was very lucky indeed to have survived. After a change in her medication when she was given a new inhaler she began to feel much better and although her asthma flared up about once every month, she was relatively well compared to previous experiences. For about the next 14 years Jane enjoyed a good quality of life travelling extensively and she gained promotions at work.
At about the time she turned 40 Jane once again found that her asthma was becoming worse again and eventually at age 50 she had to take medical retirement from work because she was no longer able to perform her role.
Jane discovered through looking up information on the internet that there was a condition called catamenial asthma which is related to female hormones and the menstrual cycle and she realised that her symptoms had always appeared on a monthly basis around about that time, and the time when she had the very bad attack may have coincided with the start of her peri-menopause. She asked her GP about this and though he had never heard of it, he did some research and confirmed that it was likely that this was the cause of her asthma episodes. She also has severe allergic asthma which is triggered by several things but primarily dust mites.
Over the years Jane has been on a variety of different preventer inhalers which she takes on a regular basis, as well as Ventolin used to relieve immediate symptoms, and she recognises the benefits of the newer inhaled steroids. However she has experienced some side effects such as thinning of the skin, steroid induced cataracts, high blood pressure, and mood swings when she comes on or off oral steroid medication. Jane has more recently begun taking a low dose of chemotherapy treatment once a week (Methotrexate) which helps suppress her immune system and has found it has worked well to help relieve some of the wheeziness she experiences generally. She also has to take folic acid regularly because of the effects of the chemotherapy treatment.
Asthma has interrupted Jane’s life over the years in many ways, such as finding it difficult to have relationships because it can be very difficult for others to witness somebody who is wheezing and having difficulties breathing. She has also had to accept that there are times when she has to rely on other people for day to day help, although there are also times when she is well enough to be fully independent.
Now Jane works part time at a lower level job that allows her some flexibility and keeps her active, but she feels frustrated at the drop in income that has been the result of her early retirement from her career and this has led to also having to accept a more limited lifestyle than she might have expected had she been able to continue working full time.
Jane feels upset that there is a general perception that asthma is a trivial condition and although she knows that many people have it at a relatively low level that can be well controlled, there are also many people who have frequent and severe attacks and whose lives are limited because of it.
Jane is monitored regularly by her GP and the asthma nurse and she usually takes advice when she feels she needs to adjust her medication and take extra steroids to combat a potential attack.
Jane’s advice to other asthma sufferers is to find out as much as possible about the condition and to establish what your triggers are, so that you can make adjustments to your lifestyle to lessen the impact of the condition, She feels it’s important not to let it dominate your life and to try to keep as active as possible within your limitations.