Tomas

Age at interview: 16

Brief Outline: Tomas, age 16, was diagnosed with asthma at age 6 months. He is white and lives at home with his parents and brother. Tomas is a keen rugby player and thinks that his asthma is not stopping him from doing the sport he likes. His parents have always encouraged and supported him. He says that the work that Asthma UK does at schools has helped to improve the understanding of the condition among teachers and children.

More about me...

Tomas has had asthma since he was six months old. His childhood memories are about having lots of attacks; of being given an asthma pump at the age of two; of feeling hot and unable to breathe and of spending time in hospital, so doctors could keep ‘an eye’ on him.

At school Tomas had to limit what he could do and was not able to join in many activities. He remembers that every time he tried running he would get out of breath and had to stop to prevent an asthma attack. He felt disappointed and sometimes angry at the fact that his asthma was preventing him in joining in with his friends. His asthma also meant that his school attendance was irregular.

After the age of ten his asthma attacks became less frequent and he also discovered that taking his inhaler before doing physical activities, help him ‘not to run out of breath’. He took up rugby as his main sport and has been doing regular training and playing games ever since.

Apart from asthma, Tomas has developed various allergies and he attends a specialised hospital clinic. He says that his consultant explains things to him in an ‘easy to understand’ manner and that during the consultation doctors ask questions about his life and interests in general and not just about his asthma.

Tomas’s medications have increased over time and he is worry that his conditions might be getting worse rather than improving. Doctors have reassured him that this is not necessarily the case and he should not be worried about it.

Tomas participates in social and sport activities but takes care not to overdo it, so as to not end up having an asthma attack. He refers to it as having the ‘right attitude’ to his condition by which he means controlling it well but not allowing it to limit his life.

Tomas’ parents used to check how he took his medication, but now age 16 he takes responsibility for it himself.

Do you manage your own medication now?

Yeah now I do. I take care of it. Now I’ve realised my parents don’t even ask if I’ve taken it a lot now because I think they trust me to take it. And it’s just natural now. I just feel I get up and I have to take it. It’s just the natural thing for me to do.

Around what age did you start to manage?

Around fourteen, fifteen I think it was.

Can you tell me about that process of your parents handing it over to you so to speak?

Yeah. Well what, what they’ve done in the past was bring it all out for me and watch me take it and ask me if I’ve got my other pump on me just in case I need it. But since then I’ve, I‘m taking all my medication up with me. I take it when, when it’s needed and when I have to and they don’t bother me about it now. I can just get on with it and just, and they would just know I’ve done it anyway.

Tomas says there’s no point in worrying about things that may never happen.

I suppose you can always be a bit cautious of the future knowing that there, there could be new things that could, could affect your asthma. But, but then really you, you can’t concentrate on like reaching your goal whatever it is as well because you’ll, you’ll constantly be worried about new, new things that could be affecting your asthma and not being able to concentrate on something you really want to do in life. So I suppose there, there is a little bit of worry but I wouldn’t let it get in the way as much. You should, you should do what you want first and if the, it does come to that then, you know at least you’ve done that, at least you, you, you can say you’ve done it instead of worrying then that. And, and saying, “Well I could have done that when before but I was worrying about something never happened to me”.

Tomas has had lots of support from the people around him and feels this has helped him to develop a positive attitude towards managing life with asthma.

What do you think will happen if you do not manage your condition?

It’s, it, well it will be very uncontrollable so like you wouldn’t be able to do a lot of things like walking up steps, walking down the street, going to the shop whatever. You wouldn’t be able to do that because you would just be so much out of control. You could have an asthma attack at any time and constant asthma attacks can lead to, you know, anything like could lead to like even something really bad, you know.

So it will just deteriorate?

Yeah. And just eventually just be uncontrollable.

I think I have always had a positive attitude towards doing things but since. Like from the start it is always hard to build that and as long as you get it going then it’s constantly building, constantly making you being able to do all sorts of things really which you never thought you could do. And yeah, so if, if you can build up a positive attitude then there’s nothing really you shouldn’t be able to do.

What factors do you see have influenced that and helped you to develop this positive attitude?

Probably parents would be one main thing. Just supporting, supporting you, saying that you can do things. And school would, is a ok factor if. Well they, they, they do like push you into trying to do sport but sometimes they can push you too far which is when you really can’t do things. When you really are feeling bad they will still push you which isn’t great but if they push you and you are feeling fine then you will gradually build that attitude again. Doctors as well. Doctors telling you that you are, you are fine to do things makes you, makes you feel better about it.

I think a positive attitude is one big factor that, that is a difference between people with asthma. Because people who do have that positive attitude can, can live a normal life that they want to. But not having that attitude just, just makes you think, you know, “How, what am I going to do. I’m not going to be able to do anything in life now knowing that I’ve got this”. So I think the positive attitude is a real big, big factor with, for people with asthma.

Tomas says it’s important that doctors talk directly with young people when they go for a consultation.

How did they explain asthma to you, your parents, the doctor?

Explaining to me was through the doctor but with my parents there. So obviously they would explain it to them and they, then my parents would explain it to me in an easier way for me to understand. So yeah it was, was. I pretty much understood it from the start.

You had to go to the hospital?

Yeah. 

Have you spent time at hospital?

I have when I was really young like, like overnight and stuff. But I have spent a lot of time at, at my age now but not staying in. I have just been going back quite a lot when I, I like, seeing consultants and stuff like that about what I need to be doing. But no, I haven’t been staying in a lot now compared to when I used to when I was a lot younger.

So you have been seeing consultants quite regularly?

Yeah I have been quite recently. About in the last two years I’ve seen, I’ve been at the hospital a few times. That’s, that’s with my asthma and my allergies trying find out what new allergies I’m getting and if there’s any new medication I can go on for my asthma and just basically trying to make things better really.

You go with your mum or you go with your parents?

Yeah, yeah I go with my mum.

Do they talk to you now or they talk to your parents?

They talk to me now. They have done since I was about thirteen, something like that. Just, I think they find now that if they talk straight to the person, like the child, that they are like looking after then they could get through to them better than their parents telling them because maybe they won’t tell you the full story or whatever and maybe they don’t understand themselves so. They tell me now, yeah.

And do you, do you understand their meaning? Do they use easy to understand language?

Yeah compared to what they’ve used in the past when they actually do talk to me their language is a lot easier to understand than when they’re using like a lot of big words which are really hard to understand.

When you see, when you have your consultation are they interested in, in your life, I mean in your schooling, your friends? Do they ask questions about that.

Yeah, yeah and I think that’s how they get through to you more because they don’t talk about what you’ve got so much. They, they talk about like what’s going on in your life and they use that to explain what you’ve got basically. So like if they ask me about sport then they can use that to help explain how my asthma is going to affect that. So that’s just a bit, an easier way of actually explaining what’s going on.

Tomas has had asthma since early childhood and when he was very young he found it difficult to join in with PE and activities, but as he got older he learned how to manage things so that he could take part in sports with his friends.

I couldn’t really do a lot of activities as much because every time I tried running I was just out of breath so I had to stop anyway. And I knew if I carried on then I would just have another asthma attack. So just felt a bit like disappointed I suppose because just really wanted to get involved with other stuff and knowing I couldn’t at the time. It was just a bit disappointing. So I was a bit mad at the time.

What do you mean mad? [laugh]

Well like angry, was just a bit annoyed at, by the fact that I couldn’t join in at a lot of things because of my asthma.

At school?

Yeah at school.

What about your friends at that time? Did you join in with activities that...

Yeah, yeah

...the others were doing?

Yeah I did. I joined in quite a few things with them. But seems as though I was so young they wouldn’t really understand so it was just, you know, just they generally thought there was nothing wrong. That I was just, you know, just running and getting out of breath for no reason. But I did join in just obviously couldn’t do as much as I would have liked to, just joining in and stop after a while.

And at school did you have to miss schooling around that time when you had your, your attacks?

Yeah at the time I missed quite a lot of school. I mean even now I’ve missed a couple of days but not as much as I used to but I still have days where I just don’t feel right and I feel I have to stay in from anything. So even now I just still get it as well.

You said that the, the attacks became less frequent after the age of ten. If you have to compare how much activity you did before and after ten did you get involved in more kind of school activities and things like that or?

Yeah after my asthma attacks were less frequent I would say I got involved in a lot more. Because I discovered that if I like took my reliever before doing activities then I wouldn’t be out of breath as, as much which meant I could do a lot more of what I wanted to and a lot of different things which I’d never been able to do in the past. So yeah, after ten I would say I did, I done a lot more than before.

What did you want to do before?

Well nothing big obviously because I wasn’t that old but just being able to do what everyone else was doing really at the time. Just being able to join in, in everything else was the main thing.

Like what?

Just you know, just any sport like football or just running around or whatever game we were playing, just anything like that.

Tomas is a member of Asthma UK’s youth forum who give the charity their viewpoint about living with asthma, and get involved in a variety of different activities to support young people with asthma.

You started to find out more about this charity and which type of work are you doing with them?

Well I’ve been on a youth forum in an, the office in London which is just a group of about ten to twelve children around the ages of thirteen to seventeen and gathered together about every three months I think. And we’ve got [name] and he leads in. He, he talks through new things he’s going to bring up and. And it’s up to us as, like the children to tell him what we think will work and what we think is good or what we think is bad or what we think won’t work. And if anything is to change and if something needs to change then he takes our advice and he changes it. So we’re just like basically people who tell him what to do really, like what he needs to improve on and what we think is good.

Tomas’ friends know that he has asthma. ‘They don’t see it as something that would make me different to other people or exclude me because of it’.

What about your friends? How have they responded to you having asthma?

They.... My friends are pretty good about it. They don’t, they don’t see it as like something that would make me different to other people or exclude me because of it. And they do understand that if I am short of breath or if I am coughing that it is because of my asthma and they do respect that in some ways.

Has it always been the case or now that you are a teenager your friends, you can talk to your friends more about it or?

Yeah I would say now you can talk more. Now probably now more than ever because just early teens was, you know, you, you could. My friends weren’t really mature enough to talk about something like that about but now that I’m grown up a bit then you, you just seem as though you can have a one-on-one conversation with someone about it and feel fine about it. Just feel good to talk about it and it, to anyone like just to get it all out.

Everybody you know, knows that you have asthma or what?

Yeah, yeah most of my friends know and all my family know. So basically everyone knows I have it.

You said something about your family providing you with a lot of support. Can you tell me more about it?

Well they, they’ve never stopped me from doing something I’ve wanted to do. They, they’ve always warned me about make sure you take your medication before you do it but they’ve never said, “No you’re not doing it because you’ve got asthma”. They’ve always been quite supportive and said, “Don’t let it get in the way. If you want to succeed then don’t let it get you down really. Be, be cautious about it but never let it stop you from doing what you want to do.”