AsthmaPersonal stories: Faces of asthma
Faces of Asthma - Mary
Mary is a very active 15 year old girl, who lives in St. Albert, Alberta, which is a city of about 50,000 just north of Edmonton.
She is in grade 9, an honours student, member of the city championship school volleyball team, and also is on the school basketball team.
She loves all kinds of music, even some of her dad's, and is very much a typical teenager.
Here are some of her thoughts on living with asthma:
"I've grown up with asthma, so I'm pretty used to it. It used to bug me sometimes in gym class or soccer, but once I did my inhaler, I was back to normal"
Stuff I do with Asthma:
"Everything I want to! (As in stuff I'm allowed to do, not like skydiving)
"Soccer, basketball, volleyball. In the past year, I've played on one soccer team, 2 basketball teams and 2 volleyball teams."
"Before a practice or a game, I do my inhaler, which, for the most part helps, and the majority of the time, you won't even be able to tell I have asthma."
Bad Stuff:
"Asthma sometimes slows me down in sports, but once I do my inhaler, I'm almost perfect."
"I hate doing my medication every day, but once I realized how much it can help, I make sure I do it."
"When I catch even the smallest virus, (cold...) my breathing gets worse, and my inhalers don't do much, and very rarely I end up in the hospital emergency."
"Other than that, my asthma doesn't affect me a lot."
"When I was very small, I used asthma as an excuse to not put my face in the water in swimming class, but Dad soon put a stop to that."
"When my breathing worsens, I don't panic any more, because I know the 'drill', I know what to do."
"I have only had to go to the hospital emergency once in 6 years."
|
