With proper instruction from your doctor, you should expect to control, and even prevent, asthma symptoms with few limitations to your lifestyle. The key is to get this guidance from a physician with experience in treating asthma patients. In most cases, this will be an asthma specialist: either an allergist or a pulmonologist.
Today managed care companies sometimes limit our access to specialists. This means that many of us must see primary care physicians for our asthma care. But with rapid advances in medical technology, and frequent introductions of new treatment therapies, many of these doctors cannot find the time to stay up-to-date on the latest treatments for asthma.
Great Expectations
If you are seeing a doctor for your asthma care, but you still experience asthma symptoms, you should consider seeing an asthma specialist. But how do you know when to ask for a referral? According to the National Institutes of Health, patients with asthma should be referred to a specialist when they:
- Have difficulty achieving or maintaining control of their condition.
- Experience a life-threatening asthma attack.
- Are not meeting the goals of asthma therapy after three to six months of treatment, or are not responding to current therapy.
- Have symptoms that are unusual or difficult to diagnose.
- Have severe hay fever, sinusitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), or other respiratory conditions that complicate their asthma or their diagnosis.
- Need additional diagnostic tests to determine the severity of their asthma and what causes their asthma symptoms.
- Require additional education or guidance on the complications of therapy, following their treatment plan or avoiding asthma triggers.
- Are candidates for immunotherapy (allergy shots).
- Have severe persistent asthma.
- Require continuous oral corticosteroid therapy or high-dose inhaled corticosteroids, or have taken more than two bursts of oral (pill or liquid) corticosteroids in one year.
- Are a child who is under the age of three with moderate or severe asthma, or who is beginning daily long-term therapy.
Ask yourself: Are you hampered by asthma when performing day-to-day activities? Do you find yourself coughing, wheezing or short of breath when you:
- Carry bags of groceries or other heavy objects up the steps?
- Run a block down the street to catch the bus?
- Climb a few flights of stairs because the elevator is broken?
Do you find yourself adjusting your lifestyle because of asthma by:
- Turning down invitations to participate in sports activities?
- Skipping that much-needed trip to the gym because it’s just too much for you?
- Sitting at home when your friends are out having a good time?
The decision about whether to ask for a referral becomes clearer when you consider that you should expect to live a full and healthy life despite having asthma. This means a life where:
- you can sleep a full night without interruption due to asthma,
- you can participate in physical activities,
- you are able to attend work or school each day and function at your best without being limited by asthma symptoms, and
- you can take your asthma medicines without being bothered by troublesome side effects.
You may have become accustomed to the coughing, wheezing, chest tightness or shortness of breath even though you’re taking medicine for asthma. If this sounds like you, it is time to get your asthma under control and seek the help of an asthma specialist today.
Online Resources
The American College of Allergy and Immunology
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