Take a Breath

After my third child was unofficially diagnosed with asthma, I learned that markers for asthma appear as early as birth. After the physical exam, the doctor pulled up the records from his birth. The blood results showed the very same markers that are in his brother’s blood. They’re also in my own.

Breath is such a fickle thing. As a child I suffered my own issues. I was always a bit mewly, and never very good at sports that required coordination. I was too spindly. After years of trying I was pretty much at the point of giving up. I’d never find my sport. But as I headed into the tween years, I found it. Track and field. A sport that didn’t require coordination so much as length. As my body grew surpassing most of the boys in my class, my long gangly legs were good for something. I was crap for long distances, but at the long jump I could do better than anyone else in my class.

Until I began to struggle for breath when we had gym outside. My legs were ready, but my lungs refused to cooperate. I’d end up on my back like a fish, gasping. Gulping. Drowning in the air.

[tweetthis hidden_hashtags=”#asthma”]My legs were ready, but my lungs refused to cooperate. [/tweetthis]

I was diagnosed with asthma, and my track and field career was over before it had even begun.

Years later, after a difficult labor that resulted in an emergency C-Section, I waited breathlessly for my first son’s own first breath. And so began our journey to his diagnosis with the disease that plagued my teen years. You can read about it today on Exhale.

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10 Comments

  1. My daughter was diagnosed with Asthma when she was 11. They said it was ‘childhood ashthma’ but she still suffers from it especially when she has a cold. I worry about her taking the inhalers but if she doesn’t she can have an episode. It’s a terrible disease.

    1. Author

      It is a hard choice isn’t it? I don’t want to over medicate them, but at the same time, I don’t want them to get sick. Uggghhh…

  2. As you probably know, my daughter suffered greatly with asthma- it was a ten year nightmare in discovering various other medical issues that profoundly affected it. My son had asthma too, and I thank GOD he grew out of it by the time he was five. Those early years were terrifying- he would wake up in asthma attacks every single night when he was a baby. I could go on ad on about the debilitating affects of asthma with my kiddos, and I’m sorry you have experienced similar circumstance, Liv.

    1. Author

      Yes, you certainly had a bit of a trial didn’t you. It’s such a waste of a disease. I keep hoping mine will grow out of it, but no sign yet.

  3. Heading to read! I don’t have it, nor does anyone in my family, but so many of my kids’ friends do – that I am wanting to learn more.

    1. Author

      You’re lucky you’ve been spared. Living where you do probably helps too. we’re in a more urban setting, and industrial pollution is a definite contributor to our asthma.

  4. Asthma sucks, totally. I’ve been spared but I have something similar to it.

  5. Asthma SUCKS. I had it, and I was crap at sports, but then I was also fat and did very little moving around, so there’s that. I find it bizarre that they have a specific age (here, at least) before which they’re not allowed to diagnose asthma, and after which, they are. Neff had it (has it?) and I remember the cold weather used to affect him dreadfully.

    1. Author

      It’s not that they’re “allowed” – it’s just difficult to confirm an asthma diagnosis if they can’t do the breathing test, and children under a certain age simply can’t follow the directions. And (hopefully) that means he’s grown out of it?

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