charleyhorse

Nelldance, I hope you can keep dancing for a long time, but to do that you'll have to come to terms with this disease. Asthma is a chronic inflamatory disease and slacking off on the meds can be very dangerous. It's just like diabetes - a diabetic can't stop taking meds or using insullin just because they 'feel fine.' Even when you are not aware of symptoms, the inflamation that causes asthma is still in your lungs. A number of the meds you mention are designed to keep that inflamation under control so you don't need to use that rescue inhaler too often. Forgive me for ranting, but this issue is a real concern for me. You see, I made exactly the same mistake many, many times over the last 20 years. Eventually the inflamation led to scaring in my lungs and now I have to settle for what drs call "reasonable control" because complete control is no longer possible. I'm 47 and I have the lung function of a 75 year old. I often wonder if I could have avoided this situation by being more faithful with medications early in this battle. Please be careful.

Barb