About 1 in 12 children have asthma. With such high of a percentage, you'd think that it would be understood more. Especially at this middle school age, it's hard feeling left out and limited because of my severe asthma. During electives class last week, we played flag football, which is one of my favorite sports. It was cold outside, which triggers asthma, but I didn't want to stop playing. The game was tied, and my team had the ball! However, even though I had pretreated with my inhaler and took my daily asthma medicine, it wasn't enough to overcome the cold air's effects. Within a few minutes of running my lungs tightened, I began wheezing, and I felt dizzy. For hours afterward, my breathing was still challenging and didn't improve until I took a hot shower. I had to sit out both the school basketball game and swim practice that night. I posted about all this on Instagram, where one of my friends messaged me in response. "Why didn't you come up to someone, and why didn't you stop playing?" he asked. "Just know your ability and no one is gonna say s--t." I never curse, but this was exactly what I needed to hear! Looking back on it, yes, I definitely should have immediately sat out and trusted the others. But is it okay to ignore it sometimes? It's a frightening feeling when my asthma flares, like my lungs are painfully collapsing and closing on themselves. Usually I don't cough that much, which probably just makes it even more invisible to others. Probably no one would know what I was going through unless I told them. Unlike the kids I see at swim practice faking coughs to skip a hard set, I've always tried to swim through it silently for as long as possible. At this point, I'm just tired of having asthma limit me. I don't want it to seem like an excuse, don't want to complain about it. So I guess in response to my friend wondering why I didn't stop, I just didn't want to. As long as I could still breathe air, I pushed it to the back on my mind, no matter how painful it was. Sitting out feels like giving up. I don't want to surrender to my asthma; I don't want to give up control. However, now I know none of that is really true, so I just need to think through it better. Because realistically, it's okay to have to slow down sometimes and just breathe. It may be incredibly frustrating, but no one, including me, is gonna say s--t. Previous Post: OIT Updates
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Meet RachelI'm a teenage girl with food allergies, asthma, and congenital heart defects who wants to raise awareness and share my experience. Welcome to my blog! ArchivesCategories |