Asthma Alert!!!

Asthma is a very common disorder worldwide, affecting people of all ages, race or sex. In Singapore, about 5% of adults and 20% of children have asthma. Asthma is a chronic, inflammatory disease affecting the airways, the breathing tubes that carry oxygen in and out of the lungs.

Asthma attacks result from sensitive airways that react to certain trigger factors. These triggers may be different for different people. Asthma tends to run in families. People with asthma also have an inherited tendency (called atopy) to develop other allergic conditions such as eczema and allergic rhinitis.

(taken from Health Promotion Board)

Recently, Nadia was down with sickness. It all started with a heavy feeling on her chest. Breathing difficuty, shivering, vomitting, dizzyness and difficulty to pass motion. Felt sorry for Nadia, cause, she have been having this shortness in breathing for almost a week. Before Hakim went to work, he accompanied Nadia to a General Practitioneer(GP) in her hood. The doctor prescribed her with asthma control tablet, but the doctor was not sure what exactly Nadia was suffering from. The only side effect of this tablet is that, it will make the person to shiver, the person will start to slur and unable to carry out his/her daily routine for the day. So he recommend her to come back if there was no improvement after 2-3 days.

After taking the medication and still no improvement, Nadia decided to go straight to the nearest Hospital, Changi General Hospital. The doctor did ran some test, to check whether is she suffering from asthma;
Able to speak in a sentence...OK
Shortness in breath... Not OK
Whizzing sound when breathing... Nil
The doctor didn't knew what's wrong with her, cause she didn't meet the criteria. So the doctor ran some ECG on her to check on her heart rate. When the result was read out, the doctor say, "... seems ok." This prove to be the part that makes Nadia worried. After the consultation, the doctor prescribe her with some antibotics tablets, as he suspected that her is 'bengkak'.

The word, 'seems ok' continue to play in Nadia's mind. All the 'What If' questions starts to appear. Well, no matter what medication you take, if your mind is not at rest, you will never get well. After 4 days, Nadia pestered Hakim & her mum to bring her back to the same hospital. So there they were again waiting for her name to be called. The doctor ran a few test again, this time she was asked to put on the oxygen mask. The ECG test was carried on her after that. This time, the doctor did managed to get something from the test. Her heart was beating faster than normal. So the doctor suspected that she was having the initial stage of an asthma attack. Her whole body was shivering uncontrollably. The doctor prescribed her with a stronger asthma control tablet.

Alhamdulillah, Nadia's health is now improving day by day.

Hakim; Jaga diri bebaik. Yang penting, jaga ur makan.