Any folks with Asthma?

klr_guy

klr_guy

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I don't have it, no one in my family does, but today I had an experience (that everyone got through fine), but would like to have more info going forward ...

All Grade 3 students in my son's school board are going through basic water 'survival' lessons - i.e. treading water, floating starfish-like, holding breath under water etc. I volunteered to be the male 'helper' as my son's teacher is female as is the classroom assistant.

Today I had to deal with 19 of the little buggers ;) in the change room and supervise the pool activity. One boy had virtually no swimming experience and the lessons triggered an asthma attack. Problem was he forgot his puffer at school (20 minutes away).

I got him out of the pool and back in the change room, and tried to get him to calm down and steady his breathing. With my lack of Asthma knowledge I figured it was as much anxiety/panic over the water so just tried to get him to stop thinking about the pool and distract him with "we're done for the day" / "we'll try again next week" type of conversations. Ultimately got him calmed down and breathing fine and went back out to get his teacher to make sure he was 100%.

I'll be doing this for 2 more weeks. What does an Asthma attack feel like, what helps, what doesn't? I'll obviously do some googling, etc., but just curious if anyone on the board had any guidance.
 
Make sure he has his puffer before you let him do any physical activity. If he forgot it, he can sit out, for his own safety... You can die from a severe asthma attack. The lungs physically inflame and the air passages constrict so no amount of calming down will reverse that if its severe (He'll pass out from not being able to breathe before he can "calm down"). I probably would have called the paramedics or seen if anyone else had an emergency inhaler handy because I wouldnt want a 10 year olds death on my hands...
 
It sucks. I have it and thankfully its only a minor case that usually only surfaces when I'm sick. It feels like your suffocating and cant get air. Try breathing like normal but when you inhale, do it through a straw that is small enough that it wont allow you to get a full breath. Continue this for a little while and you'll start to get a bit short of air.

I'm sure you did great with the kid but if it does happen again even if it was triggered by an event or object, once its removed, the kid still has the problem of getting air. I remember it being really scary as a kid, but now I just relax and really concentrate on my breathing. Steam seems to help. Running a hot shower and just being in it is great. Greenhouses with their moist air is good too. You being at the pool could just turn on a few shower heads and turn in on full hot and just have him stand near the steam, might help. Drinks like coffee, hot chocolate or just hot water is good too, usually as hot as you can stand it but being able to drink it fairly quick. You want to drink it, not sip it. This seems to help me, but the puffer works wonders next to these.

The teacher should know about this and be required to have his puffer.
 
i had ashtma growing up as a kid and it sucked.. after exercising sometimes i would feel it.. it feels almost like someone is pushing down on ur chest and u cant breath, i couldnt take full breathes and i felt suffocated so i needed a bit of space and air.. i also noticed the weather helps.. when i was in warmer enviroments it would take longer for it to go away or i would get it more often and when i had it, i just wanted to be in a cooler temperature some where with a/c .. besides that, time... ONE thing ****** me off tho is when others try to ask me questions about how im feeling or what i need cuz at that point im struggling to breath, let alone have a conversation.. hope this helps =)
 
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