May 2007

I've been living with asthma since I was 14 years old. My asthma is caused mostly by airborne allergens, like dust, grass and tree pollens. But chemical irritants, like cigarette smoke, harsh cleaning agents and certain types of perfumes, can also make my lungs twitchy.

I take a combination of three different types of medications to keep my asthma under control. I take a pill and an inhaler filled with cortisteriod medication twice daily to reduce the inflammation in my lungs caused by asthma. I also keep another specific inhaler that I take if I have an asthma attack.

It has taken me most of my adult life to get my asthma under control. I had to try different medicinal regimes and avoid irritants that could trigger an asthma attack.

I've been to the emergency rooms of local hospitals many times since I was a teenager as a result of severe asthma attacks; one of those trips was by ambulance. It's been those times that I'm reminded that my condition is life-threatening and I need to take my condition seriously.

I've had my asthma under control for approximately nine years. With the help of my doctor, we finally figured out an asthma action plan that worked. I was placed on a pill called Accolate that reduces inflammation and mucous buildup in my lungs. I was also placed on a cortisteroid called Symbicort that also treats lung inflammation as well. I take both medications on a daily basis. I agreed to avoid the outdoors when the pollen count is high or when there’s smoke from open fires in the air.

Since 1998, my asthma has only given me trouble whenever I caught the flu or a cold or days when the pollen count is extremely high. Other than that, I wake up most mornings without struggling to breathe.

So when I learned last year that I would be attending journalism school in New York City, I didn't think my health would be affected by the move. My asthma was under control so the thought of severe attack was far from my mind. But my fiance was worried. He had lived in New York City before and raised concerns about the air quality affecting my asthma. At the time, I dismissed his concerns as being overprotective.

When we first arrived in New York last August, I started waking up with the occasional cough. I took my fast acting puffer and an allergy pill but the cough didn't go away. Then I started to wake up wheezing with each breath. Again, I took my puffers and allergy medication to counter it. But the wheezing and coughing persisted. About a month after I arrived in the city, I had my first full-blown attack. But this attack was like no other I had experienced in my life and it scared me. I coughed until I felt like I was going to pass out from dizziness. I coughed so much that I damaged my vocal chords and lost my voice for nearly a month. Every muscle in my body ached from the repeated coughing fits. I couldn't leave my apartment for two weeks because the outside air would only make the coughing fits worse.

After several visits to a university health clinic and one visit to the emergency section, I finally got the coughing fits to stop. I had to switch to a more powerful and more expensive inhaler, Advair. The purple diskus dispenses metered doses of two types of medication in powdered form: salmerterol and fluticasone, which decreases the swelling in the airways and relaxes the muscles in the lungs. However, it also has a less desirable side effect; it can intensify an asthma attack that could result in death. So, naturally, I would like to get off this particular puffer as soon as possible.

During one of my numerous visits to the health clinic, my doctor informed me that New York was one of the worst places to live for asthmatics because the air quality here is poor. In 2006, the American Lung Association listed New York as a place where there is a dangerously high level of air pollutants. According to the association's website, approximately 2.5 million people suffer from such respiratory diseases as asthma, chronic bronchitis and emphysema in the New York area, which has unhealthly levels of both ozone and particle pollution.

This particular asthma bout has forced me to take a closer look at the environment around me and the effects that global warming is having on the most vulnerable, such as people with respiratory problems. This year in New York has forced me to examine the air I breathe and where I breathe it.

While the American Lung Association recommends people focus on controlling asthma in their current location rather than relocate to a place where there is better air quality, I think the air I breathe here is far more dangerous for me. So when school ends, my fiance will likely be seeking a place to live where the air is far cleaner to breathe. My life may depend on it.