Asthma
Advice to others about asthma
We asked people what messages they would give to others from their experiences. A key message echoed by many interviewees was that although it might seem daunting to be diagnosed with asthma at first, particularly if you’ve experienced a serious asthma attack, you can control it rather than letting it control you. Nicola said, "It doesn’t have to take over your life", David’s advice was "learn to control your asthma and you can live a full life" and Eileen said, "It need not inhibit you in any way. But you have to make sure that you’re diagnosed, that you have the proper medication and that you take it." People were keen to point out that asthma need not interfere too much with your life if you take the right steps to manage it. They recommended that anyone diagnosed with asthma should be proactive and try to find out as much information as possible to help understand it, because as one person said ‘knowledge is power’.
Jan’s message to others is to find out as much information as you can, and take advice from health professionals about how to manage it yourself.
Jan’s message to others is to find out as much information as you can, and take advice from health professionals about how to manage it yourself.
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Alice’s advice is to ‘try to be active… proactive rather than passive, that’s a good motto for anything in life’. [AUDIO ONLY]
Alice’s advice is to ‘try to be active… proactive rather than passive, that’s a good motto for anything in life’. [AUDIO ONLY]
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Susan says, ‘You can live a normal life with it. It doesn’t have to rule your life’. Her advice is to go back and see the GP if you are still getting symptoms regularly, and be aware of your triggers. [AUDIO ONLY]
Susan says, ‘You can live a normal life with it. It doesn’t have to rule your life’. Her advice is to go back and see the GP if you are still getting symptoms regularly, and be aware of your triggers. [AUDIO ONLY]
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Sounds like you have to kind of really know yourself and also …
Yeah.
… be able or prepared to work…
You kind of have to…
.. Hand in hand with the doctor and the asthma nurse…
You have to be a bit kind of proactive and take a bit of control of it. But if you do you can just not have it interfering too much.
Peter says it’s important to work hand in hand with the GP to find the right treatment; ‘be prepared to experiment a bit’.
Peter says it’s important to work hand in hand with the GP to find the right treatment; ‘be prepared to experiment a bit’.
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But if it goes on to be… to become more severe then there’s actually quite a lot to learn. I don’t think anybody has a monopoly of wisdom for any given patient as to what they should do. So you’ve got to be prepared to experiment a bit. I think if your GP can’t tell you, and I’ve always felt fortunate that my GP would say, “Well, you know, I’m not sure what the best thing to do is, these are the options. You know, what’s your feelings?” And we’d alight on something or other and see if it was successful and if it wasn’t you know, try something else. And I always thought that was good. But I mean taking into, to get your own views taken into account. So question what you’re told and be prepared to try out different things.
I think learning to self manage is useful. I think that is useful. But that might take a bit of time to get to the point where you feel confident enough to do it.
- work with the GP and asthma nurse or other health professionals to find the right medication for you
- learn how to manage it yourself
- be proactive and ask questions if you don’t understand
- learn how to use inhalers correctly
- try to find out what your triggers are so that you can try to avoid them
- ask for help if symptoms change or get worse
- go for regular reviews at the asthma clinic
- always take the medication
- be organised
- make sure friends and family know how to help if you have an asthma attack
- try to keep calm if you are having difficulties breathing
- and make a few lifestyle changes (e.g. stopping smoking or losing some weight) if necessary to give you a better chance of controlling your asthma.
Belinda suggests carrying an asthma attack card on you to give people around you information on how to help in an emergency, and put an ICE (In Case of Emergency) number on your mobile phone. [AUDIO ONLY]
Belinda suggests carrying an asthma attack card on you to give people around you information on how to help in an emergency, and put an ICE (In Case of Emergency) number on your mobile phone. [AUDIO ONLY]
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And also carry an ICE, in case of emergency number on your mobile ‘phone in case you’ve collapsed.
What’s an ICE?
In case of emergency.
OK. Hmhm.
ICE. Put it on your mobile ‘phone’.
Jenny has severe brittle asthma and is often in and out of hospital. She recalls the first time she went in to A&E as an emergency, but now the hospital staff and paramedics know her and what she needs.
Jenny has severe brittle asthma and is often in and out of hospital. She recalls the first time she went in to A&E as an emergency, but now the hospital staff and paramedics know her and what she needs.
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And had you been on steroids, at that point, or were you just using your inhalers?
I think at that point, I was just using my inhalers… because I hadn’t realised that I’d got an infection or anything because previously I’d had the infection in my foot, I’d had antibiotics for that.. and was just assumed that I was better and thought the cough was because it was the middle of summer, you know, was it hay fever or whatever… I was having a bit of a cough and stuff. And then, when I say I got to A&E, they just thought that my temperature was very high and I had this infection and they did the x-ray and it was, it was pneumonia in the left lung, and I was in the hospital for ten days with that.
And what took place whilst you were admitted into hospital and what, what sort of things were they doing?
In A&E I had nebulisers, oxygen, fluids because I’d got de-hydrated because I was coughing so much.
What the, do you know what the nebulisers called?
Salbutamol… and Atrovent nebulisers yeah.
So that’s to kind of stabilise you, and so when you were in hospital they were monitoring you and keeping, trying to get on to…
Yeah. The idea is, before you go home from hospital, you have to be back on your normal medication, unless they happen to have increased it or whatever. I mean, it turned out I then went on to a drug called aminophylline which they put straight into your veins and that sort of increases the blood supply to your lungs and it relaxes things down.
Now I have, since being here, I’ve… on my first admission it was all set up for me that now my home phone number and my mobile phone number are red flagged, what they call it with the ambulance service, so if I ring them up, it’s, they know who I am, they the chances are that it’s probably my asthma; if I can’t say much I don’t need to say much to them. They’ll sort of say, you know, they’ll ask you for your phone number, where you are or the location and then often they’ll say “Is that Jenny?” “Yes”. “Is it your asthma?” “Yes”. “Someone’s on their way,” and they sort of say, they give you the usual do this do that, whatever.
So it’s sort pre-set for a priority call?
Yeah.
Melissa’s message is ‘always ask if you don’t know’. It’s important to make sure you understand the medication and how to use it.
Melissa’s message is ‘always ask if you don’t know’. It’s important to make sure you understand the medication and how to use it.
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Didn’t have the right technique?
Didn’t have the right technique. It wasn’t, I didn’t know if I was doing it right. So yes, always make sure you’ve got enough information to be able to feel satisfied and happy before you walk away.
Dee’s advice is’ you can make a really big difference to your experience of this yourself…..working hand in glove with people who know a lot more about it than you do at the asthma clinic’.
Dee’s advice is’ you can make a really big difference to your experience of this yourself…..working hand in glove with people who know a lot more about it than you do at the asthma clinic’.
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I mean I know from talking to asthma nurses, specialist asthma nurse and asthma professionals that they could spend all day and every day teaching people how to actually take the drugs properly. A lot of people have the medication and they think they’re taking it but they’re swallowing it or losing it into the air or whatever but they’re not actually getting it into the lungs.
Just be organised about where your medication is and about taking it and you know, don’t suffer in silence. You know, if you feel that you’re breathless or you feel it’s stopping you doing things, get out there and find yourself a an asthma clinic near you and go along and make friends with them and listen to what they say because it might all sound a wee bit kind of precious and picky at the start but they know what they’re talking about. And use whatever resources you can get at on the internet or reading or talking to other people but I think just if you can have an attitude that your asthma is there, you can either manage it or not manage it and managing it to within whatever level is obviously, going to be better for your quality of life.
For Margaret the most important thing is to ensure that you are taking the medication correctly and regularly. ‘It’s just part of the morning and night routine, before you clean your teeth, you take your inhaler’.
For Margaret the most important thing is to ensure that you are taking the medication correctly and regularly. ‘It’s just part of the morning and night routine, before you clean your teeth, you take your inhaler’.
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(Also see ‘Managing asthma – reviews and action plans’ and ‘Medication and treatment-inhalers’).
Last reviewed August 2017.
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