|
You're on a new case. So what's your goal? To learn how you can find out if you have asthma.
There are some common signs, called symptoms, which can give you a clue whether or not you have asthma. A symptom of asthma might be:
- getting short of breath, or
- coughing a lot, or
- getting all wheezy and having to work harder than normal to breathe in air, or
- getting a tight or tickly feeling in your chest
These are the clues. So if you feel these things, does it mean you have asthma? Well, it might. But then again, it might not. Tricky, huh?
You see, sometimes kids who don't have asthma might feel all these things too, if they have a cold or they're allergic to something. And sometimes, you might have asthma and hardly even feel those things at all. That's the mystery about asthma: the clues keep changing.
So if the clues keep changing, how are you supposed to figure out if you have asthma?
Well, as an Asthma Agent, there are times when you just have to ask a grown-up for help, and this is one of those times. And the grown up who can help you is your doctor, because only your doctor can tell you for sure if you have asthma.
To find out for sure if you have asthma, the doctor will probably ask you to do one of two tests. But don't worry. They're not scary at all. They're actually really easy.
These tests tell the doctor different things, but you do exactly the same thing for both. Here's how it works: You take a deep breath, put your mouth on a special tube, and then BLOW as hard as you can. That's it. That's the whole test. Told you it was simple.
Your doctor might get you to do one of these tests:
- A Peak Flow Test. This test uses a tube called a peak flow meter to measure how hard and fast you can blow air out. You usually do this a few times, just to make sure that you always blow out about the same amount of air. Your doctor may even give you a peak flow meter to take home so you can check how your asthma is doing.
- A Spirometry (spur-ahh-met-tree) test. This test sounds complicated but it's really not. For this test, you use a tool called a spirometer (spur-ahh-met-er). It measures how much air you blow out in one second, and it checks to see how much air you can fit in your lungs.
The amount of air you can blow out during your test will allow the doctor to make a diagnosis (die-yag-nose-sis). That's another big word. It just means to decide whether or not you have asthma.
If the doctor thinks you might have asthma, he may give you some medication. If you breathe better after taking the medication, then the doctor will know you have asthma.
Once the diagnosis is made, the doctor will be able to tell you how to take your medicine so that you can control your asthma better every day.
|
