Mark

Age at interview: 49

Brief Outline: Mark, age 49, was diagnosed with asthma at age 6. He is white British and married with two children (aged 8 and 11) who also suffer from asthma. Mark himself has a number of health conditions as well as asthma, and at the moment is unable to work. His asthma is quite severe and he experiences symptoms most days because there are a wide variety of things that trigger his asthma, including changes in weather and temperature, pollen, over exertion and smoky or dusty atmospheres.

More about me...

Mark was diagnosed with asthma when he was about 6yrs old. He remembers being taken to hospital after his first attack, and being admitted for about a week whilst his breathing problems were investigated. At the time there were fewer treatments for asthma than there are these days, but he remembers being given several different types of medication and it took a while to find out which worked best for him.

He currently uses a preventer inhaler (Becotide) and a reliever inhaler (Ventolin) and he uses a spacer to help ensure that he gets the full dose of medication each time.

Mark is unable to work at the moment because he also has a number of other health problems, including recently being diagnosed with ME. His wife and children also suffer from asthma. Because Mark has had asthma for most of his life he feels he can give his children the support they need to help them manage the condition because of the insights he has gained through his own experience over the years.

Mark’s asthma is triggered by hay fever, particularly when the fields near to his house are full of rapeseed. His asthma is also triggered by changes in weather conditions, over exertion, and dusty or smoky atmospheres.

Mark finds that he can become quite frightened when he starts to feel wheezy, possibly because in the past it has led him to be admitted to hospital, although that was many years ago. As soon as he feels himself becoming wheezy and breathless he uses the ventolin inhaler straight away. He attends regular routine appointments at the asthma clinic, and in summer or when his asthma is at its worse he attends more often as he finds the support he gets from his asthma nurse is invaluable in helping him to know whether he needs to increase or moderate the dosage of medication. At the clinic the asthma nurse checks his peak flow measurement each time, and depending on the reading she will advise him whether he should increase the amount of inhaled steroids, or sometimes she may prescribe a course of steroid tablets. Mark is also encouraged to keep an asthma diary, so that when he sees the asthma nurse she can see how he has been managing. Mark is very keen to stress that it’s important to get this kind of help in order to avoid the conditioning worsening.

Mark finds he has to be very careful about the activities that he engages in and has to take account of his limitations. He is realistic and doesn’t believe that his asthma will be cured, but feels it’s important to be self aware, to know what the triggers are and to moderate one’s lifestyle to take this into account. He is very keen to stress how important it is to take the medication you are prescribed regularly and to take advice from the asthma nurse or GP when things worsen or change.

Mark says… “the best way to describe asthma is at its worst, it’s just like you’re drowning in a pool because you…. Both ways, with drowning and with asthma you’re trying to fight for air”

Mark worries about his children coping with their asthma, but having it himself means he can understand how they are feeling.

And what it is like for you as a father having two children who’ve got asthma?

Well I’ve been through a fair amount myself so you know, you can give them a bit more help and understanding on that particular you know, subject. And you can say you know, “Look, just, not so much football, just a little, because this is what happened to dad, and dad was out playing for about 10 minutes”. Right, and, you know, I was wheezing away. And you know, they, they’ll, I think when you’ve been through it yourself and you know, they take more notice then.Because they know what’s heading, what can, what, they are heading for as well.

OK. So do you worry about them?

You always worry about your own children. But you know, only tiny bit, because, you know, things just make you worser.And, you know, it’s doing no good at all.

Do you mean worrying about them would be bad...

Yeah.

... for your asthma?

I worry a little bit.

Right.

But you know, you worry too much then it’s going to cause panic attacks and, you know, your asthma will start and things like that, so it would make it worser full stop.

Mark remembers the first time he had an asthma attack and was taken to hospital.

I was wheezing very badly and it did scare me, it’s, it does scare you because its sort, it’s new that’s happening to you and as I said, in those days, you, people knew very little about the problem. And I begun to find it hard to, I did notice that it depended where I’d go. Like if I walked past grass, right, or hay or anything like that, then I would start to feel very wheezy and totally out of breath. And animals had a big effect on me as well.

Can you remember the first time that you really noticed that you had it, that you really noticed you were wheezing?

Yeah. My, my eyes really watered and also my eyes were swollen up. And I was, I could not breathe and they had to call an ambulance. And that is one of the first times that I was aware that, you know, some, something wasn’t really right.

Mark describes how asthma symptoms can feel to him ‘like drowning in a pool’.

If you had to describe what asthma was to someone who didn’t know, what was, how would you describe it?

Well I think the best way to describe asthma is at its worst, right, it is just like you’re drowning in a pool because you, both ways with drowning and with asthma you’re trying to fight for air. You’re trying to breathe air, you know, either with your nose or with your mouth, you want it then. And you can’t. And what makes it so much more worser is when you’ve got triple the problems like hay fever, right, which again I have, so it makes it more difficult to even to try to even try to breathe through the nose. And also the mouth as well. 

Mark’s asthma nurse has the condition herself. He says she really understands, because she knows what it feels like.

It does help a great, great deal to actually have you know, that talk and what, what actually helps even more is the nurse that I see, she actually has asthma herself. Yeah, asthma and hay fever, yeah, so you’re not going to get any better help or understanding than from the person that’s on the other side of the phone, or you’re sat there talking to, with what they’ve been through, right, then you’re going to get the best understanding and help that you can.

Yeah, that’s a good point. So someone who’s been through it?

Because there’s that, you know, when you have a problem, right, when you’ve got two people who have got the same problem you’ve got that bond there where you know you’re going through the same, right, and you know that whatever you say or do then you’ve been through it. Right. And that is the difference between say, seeing an, another person, like say you’re seeing another nurse, they give help and understanding, right, and what to do, but they don’t have the problem. And mostly I find that you know, you need somebody who has that problem, right, say like asthma, right and you know, who can give you that bit of extra nudge and that bit more help.