Living With Asthma
Asthma is a long-term disease that requires
long-term care. Successful asthma treatment requires you to take an active role
in your care and follow your asthma action plan.
Learn How To Manage Your Asthma
Partner with your doctor to develop an
asthma
action plan. This plan will help you to properly take your medicines,
identify your asthma triggers, and manage your disease if asthma symptoms
worsen. Children aged 10 or olderand younger children who can handle
itshould be involved in developing and following their asthma action
plan.
Most people who have asthma can successfully manage
their symptoms at home by following their asthma action plans and having
regular checkups. However, it's important to know when to seek emergency
medical care.
Learn how to use your medicines correctly. If you
take inhaled medicines, you should practice using your inhaler at your doctor's
office. If you take long-term control medicines, take them daily as your doctor
prescribes.
Record your asthma symptoms as a way to track how
well your asthma is controlled. Also, you may use a
peak
flow meter to measure and record how well your lungs are working.
Your doctor may ask you to keep records of your
symptoms or peak flow results daily for a couple of weeks before an office
visit and bring these records with you to the visit. (For more information on
using a peak flow meter, see
"How
Is Asthma Treated?")
These steps will help you keep track over time of
how well you're controlling your asthma. This will help you spot problems early
and prevent or relieve asthma attacks. Recording your symptoms and peak flow
results to share with your doctor also will help him or her decide whether to
adjust your treatment.
Ongoing Care
Have regular asthma checkups with your doctor so he
or she can assess your level of asthma control and adjust your treatment if
needed. Remember, the main goal of asthma treatment is to achieve the best
control of your asthma using the least amount of medicine. This may require
frequent adjustments to your treatments.
If it's hard to follow your plan or the plan isn't
working well, let your health care team know right away. They will work with
you to adjust your plan to better suit your needs.
Get treatment for any other conditions that can
interfere with your asthma management.
Watch for Signs That Your Asthma Is Getting
Worse
Your asthma may be getting worse if:
- Your symptoms start to occur more often, are more
severe, and/or bother you at night and cause you to lose sleep.
- You're limiting your normal activities and
missing school or work because of your asthma.
- Your peak flow number is low compared to your
personal best or varies a lot from day to day.
- Your asthma medicines don't seem to work well
anymore.
- You have to use your quick-relief inhaler more
often. If you're using quick-relief medicine more than 2 days a week, your
asthma isn't well controlled.
- You have to go to the emergency room or doctor
because of an asthma attack.
If you have any of these signs, see your doctor. He
or she may need to change your medicines or take other steps to control your
asthma.
Partner with your health care team and take an
active role in your care. This can help control asthma so it doesn't interfere
with your activities and disrupt your life. |