“Learning to Breathe” by Carter Baker
My name is Carter, I am 14 years old, and I have the chronic condition asthma. I have had asthma my whole life, and have had to manage it to ensure I stay healthy. As I grow up to be a young man I have found ways to fully participate in life, while maintaining my health.
Asthma is a chronic disease that affects breathing. The Mayo Clinic defines asthma as “a condition in which your airways narrow and swell and may produce extra mucus. This can make breathing difficult and trigger coughing, a whistling sound (wheezing) when you breathe out and shortness of breath.” (Mayo Clinic) For me, asthma was most expressed whenever I got any respiratory illness, like a cold or flu, and when I laughed. My condition was first noticed by my parents as a baby, and I have been getting treatments ever since my diagnosis. As a younger child I had a breathing treatment machine that I had to sit with for about half an hour, while I breathed in medicated steam. Sometimes the asthma was so bad that I would have to go to the hospital for more intense treatment than what I could get at home. When I have an episode, I will start wheezing, coughing and have difficulty breathing. There is no cure for asthma. The most I can do is breath an albuterol vapor through an inhaler. The inhaler helps, but doesn’t completely make the asthma go away.
The most difficult part of asthma is how it gets in the way of my sports. My two favorite sports are soccer, and track and field. In soccer I play the wing position. It is a position where it requires lots of sprinting for most of the game. With track, I run the 100, 200, long jump and 4 x 1 relay. I have competed in both these sports at a high level, and want to continue them in high school. One issue that I have with my sports however, is my asthma. If I get a slight cold, or any kind of illness, my performance suffers, if I play/run at all. At one of my soccer tournaments, I had to go to the doctor to refill my albuterol before play to make sure I would be able to breathe. Soccer and relay are team sports, so I feel bad when I am not playing up to my usual level because of illness. When I play soccer and I am not 100% well, I ask coach to sub me out more often. I usually don’t perform as well and sometimes I am not able to play at all. In track, I am not able to run as fast as I usually can, but I can usually make it through a 100 meter, but the 200 is out of the question. When I have illness and asthma, it lasts about 3-4 days at a time.
One thing that asthma has taught me is to take responsibility for myself, and to not be embarrassed about things I need. When I was younger, I was embarrassed to use my inhaler in front of the other kids. I didn’t want to be made fun of, and I didn’t want to talk about the illness with other kids. As I grew up I realized I wasn’t the only one with this condition. There were other kids on my soccer team that also had asthma to manage and also had inhalers. Once I was able to talk about it with other people, I found other people my age to connect with. I also learned that I needed to communicate with my coaches early and often. Before a game or practice I learned to tell the coach what was going on. I didn’t want them to think I was lazy, had an attitude, or wasn’t giving 100% effort. I wanted them to know that I was trying my hardest to participate, and was still showing up even if I couldn’t play like my normal self. In soccer especially, I needed to make sure I could communicate during games. I had to be able to clearly tell coach when I was feeling weak, or when breathing was getting more restricted than I can stand. Lastly, I realized I could still support my team even when I am too sick to play. There have been times where I dressed up, sat on the bench and cheered my team on because it just wasn’t safe for me to run…even after taking my inhaler.
I wish there was a cure for asthma, or better management for when I want to be active. I know science and research makes advances every year, and maybe one year they will cure it! I also am concerned about having children, and knowing that this can be an inherited disease. That makes my hope for the future even more important. I don’t want this disease to alter my career choices or any future endeavors that I have. Having asthma has forced me to learn to advocate for myself and to not be embarrassed about an aspect of my life that I cannot change.
1. Mayo Clinic https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/asthma/symptoms causes/syc-20369653