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CAT KENNEDY IS a primary school teacher with a very active life. She loves swimming, running and climbing but she always needs to be prepared for an asthma attack that could leave her in hospital.
Kennedy has had asthma since she was a baby and was constantly getting attacks as a child.
“I was in and out of Temple Street for my childhood, I don’t think I ever had a full week in school. It was very hard to make friendships.”
Kennedy said that by the time she was in secondary school, her attendance was a bit better but she still suffered a lot of attacks.
One such attack struck on the night of her debs, “It was on in Kildare. I was in a beautiful dress.
“Luckily my dad was there and he knew the five heart rules and he was able to keep everyone calm.”
An ambulance was called and she was brought to hospital, where she ended up staying for about a week.
Relying on others
Asthma kills one person every week in Ireland.
Kennedy said she is doing much better now and hasn’t been hospitalised for about a year.
“At the moment, I have a portable nebuliser and I bring that everywhere with me.” Kennedy also says that she gets two injections a month and that does her ‘”the world of good”.
“If it’s not a bad attack, I can treat it at home and take steroids.” She also wears an emergency bracelet “because people don’t know that you’re carrying an inhaler”.
Describing a holiday in Spain, Kennedy said, “The bracelet saved my life.
Somebody around me noticed my bracelet and straight away started looking for my inhaler and I was able to point and show it was in my bag.
“It’s important you take the inhaler as soon as you can, before it gets too bad.”
Asked if she gets nervous when she feels an attack coming on, Kennedy said:
If I’m around people who know me I’m quite comfortable but if I’m in a strange place, a crowded supermarket or something it can be very scary.
Active life
However, she hasn’t allowed the asthma to stop her living life to the full.
“I just had to learn to live with it. I have an extremely active life. I swim three times a week, I walk in and out of school. I do everything.
“I love mountain climbing but sometimes the pollen affects the asthma, the change of seasons can be difficult. I’ve often had attacks at school sports days.”
Speaking about teaching, Kennedy said, “I absolutely love it, I have a great class. I’ve been a teacher for nine years.
“I haven’t had an attack during the working day but I’ve felt unwell where I’ve had to take the inhaler every six hours.”
She also says she knows her body very well now, and knows the signs of an attack coming on.
“A few days before, I get very tired, I go very quiet. My chest starts to ache a bit and it gets a bit tight and I go pale and I know what’s coming on.
“I’ve gotten better at knowing when I’m feeling unwell and I know to take my blue inhaler and steroids.”
However she added that “it’s very hard to maintain full-time job – when I get sick, I get really sick”.
“It’s a full-time job trying to keep yourself well, you have to stay on top of it all the time.”
Today is World Asthma Day and the Asthma Society of Ireland is encouraging people to learn the five-step rule so they can assist if somebody is having an asthma attack.
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As an severe asthmatic sufferer. I’m on steroids every day have been for as long as I remember. I’m on oxygen 24/7. I spent 8 month’s in hospital because they couldn’t control my attacks most of that time was in the ICU on a ventilator. They gave me no hope of leaving the hospital.
Every asthmatic is supposed to have a steroid inhaler which is taken morning and night either brown or purple (people find it easier to use the colour instead of the names) and a rescue which is normally Ventolin.
I have home nebulizer since I was 3 which I still have to use every 4 hours or more if needed. I try not to go to the hospital so I take back to back nebs and I up my steroids. I still end up stop breathing and blue lighted by ambulance to a&e. I don’t know how many times I have had CPR done I me or have been shocked by a&e because my heart stopped. In reality I shouldn’t be here but I am. I have very little quality of life as it’s hard to get out. If one thing would change I would love people to take asthma as a serious condition, people often don’t the there brown or purple inhaler until it’s too late and they end up dying. Not everyone will need to use it or they feel that their grand but you still need to use it no mater how your feeling. Asthma is dangerous treat it the way it is.
To this lady good for you to be able to do the things that your doing it’s great to hear the good side of it but there is so many that is not able to do it and are in and out of the hospital every week.
Take your inhalers both of them and don’t risk your life. Tomorrow is never promised.
I can’t believe 52 people died from an asthma attack; every year is Ireland! When my son was put on inhalers I asked the Asthma nurse ‘ does he have asthma?’ . She replied ‘ He has symptoms’. Same when I developed breathing problems as an adult, I was told ‘your airways are inflamed’. I got a brown inhaler and and a blue one, shown how to inhale it and that was it. I havn’t used either in a long time. can an attack happen unexpectedly even without day to day breathing problems? Not enough information given by docs.
@Missyb211: the reason so many die in Ireland is because historically, preventative inhalers were extremely expensive. I started taking one at about 19, when they were about 32 pounds a month – by 2002, I was paying 85 euros a month out of a very small salary. Now they cost less than about 65 euros, but for many people that is still expensive. That is the main reason why we have such a high death rate.
@Laura Farrell: That is true for many medicines. A friend of mine stopped taking meds for depression/bi polar because she couldn’t always afford it. Asthma should.be classified as a long term illness so that suffers can get it for free under the Long Term Illness scheme.( I actually think that is the reason they are not ‘diagnosing’ that a person has asthma outright, it would become too expensive for the government.) I happily discovered after years of paying for my sons meds that he could get all his medication including his asthma meds for free because all meds are free for people with certain conditions.
The purple (generic one pink and white) seratide is a brilliant inhaler and changed my husbands asthma for the better. Though he wouldn’t take it often because of how expensive it was 96 euro a few years ago. Generic one is around 50.
If you are struggling with your asthma ask for seratide.
@Lily: I have to agree Lily
@Lily: You nail it there – people are afraid to even ask for these because of the cost. 50 euro is good though – I do recall a time when seratide and intal were over 100 euro. I take Symbicort which is 65 now, and 1 puff a day is enough unless I feel a cold or cough coming on. It has been a life changer.
It’s actually a year to the day when I was in resus fighting for my life over my Asthma, a simple viral infection caused it to go into free fall, I was brought to theatre to be put on life support as I was getting to tired , I fought it and managed not to be intebated, but spent the next week in ICU and another week on iv antibiotics that knocked all the energy out of me, they kept saying I’m lucky to have lived, a year on I’m grateful that now I’ve graduated college and looking forward to my little girls communion…I’m thankful ruin alive now..it could of been so different …
I used to get a lot of attacks years ago all because I never took my inhalers on a regular basis and ended up in hospital but once I stick to my routine I am ok if I forget to take my purple one I get nervous because I could easily get an attack the purple one opens the airwaves and the blue one helps through out the day .
I work as a Spinologist with a practice in Carlow town. In most cases of asthma spinal manipulation of the thoracic spine brings instant relief. It is brilliant for children and often gets rid of the asthma altogether. In adults it may not be as effective as there is more damage done to the system but will be effective in most cases.. Brian Moore.
If you’ve got asthma go and see the Chinese doctor in Listowel. He will clear it completely with Chinese medicine.
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