You will then probably appreciate my favorite explanation of asthma that I picked up from someone who'd finally gotten fed up with people saying "Oh, it's not that bad really."
It went something like this. "You want to know what it's like to have asthma? Ok. Take a drinking straw. Pinch your nose closed, and run around the block, breathing only through the straw. Then try to breathe. That's what it's like, when it gets bad. All the time."
It's a pretty vivid example that actually gets through to people (and if not, you can tell them to go do it before you're going to discuss more with them.)
But yeah. I have weeks where walking across the room is a major athletic achievement.
The fact I've had *fewer* of those weeks in the last few years is due to attentive management and attention to detail that requires about 20-30 minutes a day. (Making my decoction, drinking it, and doing other stuff that reduces allergen load in the house. And do I ever have to a) sweep and b) change the HEPA filter this weekend.) But even on the good days, jogging's right out. So are stairs of more than 1-2 flights (there's something about the angle that gets the scarring in exactly the wrong place, as near as I can figure).
I'm starting to see signs of the fall allergen war starting (coughing fit walking back this morning), and *so* not looking forward to it.
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Date: 2009-07-30 02:28 am (UTC)It went something like this.
"You want to know what it's like to have asthma? Ok. Take a drinking straw. Pinch your nose closed, and run around the block, breathing only through the straw. Then try to breathe. That's what it's like, when it gets bad. All the time."
It's a pretty vivid example that actually gets through to people (and if not, you can tell them to go do it before you're going to discuss more with them.)
But yeah. I have weeks where walking across the room is a major athletic achievement.
The fact I've had *fewer* of those weeks in the last few years is due to attentive management and attention to detail that requires about 20-30 minutes a day. (Making my decoction, drinking it, and doing other stuff that reduces allergen load in the house. And do I ever have to a) sweep and b) change the HEPA filter this weekend.) But even on the good days, jogging's right out. So are stairs of more than 1-2 flights (there's something about the angle that gets the scarring in exactly the wrong place, as near as I can figure).
I'm starting to see signs of the fall allergen war starting (coughing fit walking back this morning), and *so* not looking forward to it.