Asthma A to Z - Real Patients: Triggers

After I was diagnosed with asthma, my provider sat down with me and we drew up a list of things that I absolutely had to do. And first and foremost I absolutely, positively had to stop smoking.

My parents did smoke when I was younger, but probably past the age of four or five they haven’t smoked since then. And I’m really sensitive to smoke, so I really can’t be around anyone who does smoke — while they’re smoking.

One incident I had with my asthma was caused by a forest fire. And the smoke in the air and the ash in the air caused me to have to go on a steroid for a two-week period of time, because I had really bad asthma at that time just from the environment that I was in.

With me it seems to be more the time of the year than it does anything else. December … November to April is the rough times, especially the last … especially March is always a rough time.

I’m allergic to everything. I have seasonal allergies. So the spring and the fall are really big for me — with the leaves falling or pollination of flowers and stuff that really bothers me. I’m also allergic to animals — pretty much anything with fur.

I find as I’m older, I watch the news reports of what the allergens are doing more because it dictates or tells me how I’m going to feel tomorrow.

Get kind of used to one allergen here, maybe one trigger here, then you move from Maryland to California, from California to Texas and it … it’s… I have to wonder also if that doesn’t maybe play a little bit.

But I also know asthma seems to come onto me if I get under a lot of stress — sometimes it tends to kick up a little bit.