Asthma: Not Silent, Not Painless, But Definitely Deadly

I've had asthma for as long as I can remember. It's always plagued me, and it pops up whenever I least expect it. Well, I kind of know when it's coming on because I start to feel dizzy. I always have my inhaler with me, but sometimes I can't get to it in time. A few times, my brothers, my mom, or my friends have had to get it for me because I've passed out. I was first diagnosed with exercise induced asthma, then, as I grew older, it was changed to adult asthma. I almost died when I was a toddler because a negligent doctor gave me the wrong dosage of a medicine for allergies. I was supposed to have 4 milligrams of Prednisone, but they gave me 12 milligrams instead. An hour later, I started to wheeze, whine, and cough like I was choking. My mom took me to the emergency room, and they diagnosed it as a severe asthma attack. After they diagnosed me and told my mom, I went limp in her arms, passed out. First, they gave me a shot to open my airways a little so I could breathe, then they put me on a nebulizer treatment. Being 2, naturally, I was terrified. I refused to let them put the clear tube with steam coming out the end in my mouth, so they tried other things. Nothing worked, so they eventually resorted to a mask that went over my nose and mouth. My mom had to tickle me to get me to breathe in the medicine, and once I did start to breathe it in, I gradually started to breathe easier. They kept me for a few hours, just for observation, and I fell asleep there. My dad met us there (he was a teacher, and was working at the time) right as they were giving me the shot, and he followed the sound of my mom yelling for something to work fast. When they let me go, my dad carried me out like he did when I was a baby, cradled in his arms. They put me on bed rest for two days after that, but being the rambunctious two year old that I was, it was hard for my parents to keep me there. The attacks continued throughout my childhood, and still occur today. Two years ago, when I was in class, someone decided that they were going to spray perfume all over the room. That caused me to start to feel lightheaded, and I knew that I was going to have an attack. My friends who sat in my group (the teacher had the desks arranged in groups of four) knew about my asthma, and we had a signal for when one was happening. I would cough, and tap my desk. Then I got my inhaler out of my pocket, and started to shake it. My hand was trembling so badly, I couldn't even get the cover off the mouthpiece. My friend noticed that, and she went and told my teacher. They came back over to me, and she helped me to the door because I was shaking so badly, I could barely stand. I got outside, sat down on one of the steps, and used my inhaler. She had grabbed my water bottle before we went outside, and I drank a little bit of it. I stayed outside for a while, got some fresh air, and I was okay. My teacher spent the rest of the period lecturing about how some people are asthmatic, and that they couldn't go around the room and spray perfume or anything like that. Later, I heard that I had turned purple because I couldn't breathe. Now I make sure that I have two inhalers: one for home, one for when I go out. A person can never be too careful when it comes to their life.