Today I was really scared I thought I was going to die.
I'll tell you all about it.
So I have asthma, but its not your regular everyday asthma that people have. I have what is known as cold-enduced asthma. This means my asthma only acts up when I get sick. Especially when I have a cold. And it gets really bad some times. So yes, the common cold is very dangerous for me. I've never really had an asthma attack though were I can't breath at all. I just breath really fast and heavy, and have trouble. Plus when I get a cold my nose is congested so I can't breath with it, so all I can use to breath is my mouth. So I don't have any problems with my asthma when I'm not sick.
So I like to play sports. I play American Football for a team. I've been doing it since I was 5 years old, and right now I'm 13. In all those years I haven't had much breathing trouble. There has been some times where I get sick and still have to show up to practice, so I really have trouble breathing those days. I still always manage to get through it somehow.
So this year I'm playing on my last year of football before high school football. Its a separate league that's for younger kids, but my level (varsity) does have some high school freshman like me, but that's why its the last year. So at this varsity level, we are pushed really hard. I think they really over-do it. I know they are trying to get us in shape but seriously you have got to see what they do to us. I mean come on were only teenagers.
Anyways, I have had this damn cold since August 15th and it just wont go away. 15 days now I've been dealing with this. Usually it takes me a day or 2 to loose my cold! So something must be going on here with me. I've been having a lot of trouble breathing in practice lately, and I get so tired. But as I always have, I manage to get through it.
Now I just had football practice today. My asthma was the worst ever today. So we had just gotten through our main course of excercises, which got me breathing so fast and heavy, I was just so tired. So then the head coach, without even giving us water, lines us up. He sets a long line of cones up.
Now this is what he has us do. He has us bear crawl (run on all 4's, hands and legs, like a bear, and they expect us to be fast.) in and out of the cones until the last cone were he has us get up and SPRINT a lap. Run as fast as we can. All we ever did was jog on our laps, but now he had as sprint the entire thing immediately after being tired out from the bear crawl. He wanted us to do it 4 times.
So let me tell you, bear crawls and laps are my worst. Anything else I can do just fine. (push ups, shuffle, backpedal, etc.) Bear crawls and laps I'm just so slow on though. On the laps, I get these cramps and I jog really slow, falling behind the rest of the team, I really struggle with them. Jogging around this big huge field. Now the bear crawls, I don't know what it is, I'm just so horrible at them.
I used to be even worse though. I used to take 5 minutes just to do one and I would keep falling down constantly in the middle of it. This year I still go slow but I don't fall and my teammates cheer me on all the time which really encourages me to push myself to finish this bear crawl. These bear crawls are what seriously bring on my asthma when I'm sick. I almost couldn't breath at all last week after our bear crawls, but I caught up with my breath.
So today on our regular straight bear crawl, I actually did pretty good. I went faster than normal and all my teammates were clapping for me. I was so proud of myself. I was also so tired.
So now I'm sitting here as tired as ever, about to do my 2 worst things ever. A bear crawl which was even worse now because we had to go in and out of a huge lines of cones, and then we had to immediately go for a lap. I start doing it all tired and slow on it, and my coaches are yelling at me, then I go into the lap real slow and they are screaming at me to run.
I make it back to the line for my 2nd turn, and I was so tired. Of course the line has to move really quickly, so then I go again right away. This time it was even worse, and one of my coaches was forcing me to run it, so then I got my cramp. I come back for the 3rd one, I start off fast like they want but by the end I'm so tired that I almost start walking, but I'm there jogging at less than 0.1 mph. My best friend Luis who is one of my teammates comes up and starts pushing me on the back to help me get going, and I finish that lap.
I see kids drinking water and I'm so relieved. Breathing really heavy I start walking towards the water when suddenly the head coach starts yelling at me. He tells me that I need to do 4 in order to get water, I had only done 3. So I guess at some point in all my slowness, all these kids lapped me and did 4 while I had just finished my 3rd.
So I start the bear crawl and when I get to the end of the cones, another coach hears my poor breathing, and tells me I can stop, to go get water. That was really nice of him. I'm walking towards the water slowly and I start breathing really really heavy and I start to get scared. Then I feel like I can't breathe at all, I start gasping for air. Then I completely stop breathing. No air is coming in or out and I'm not even making a sound.
I'm just standing there unable to breath. I somehow manage to say really quietly to one of my teammates.. "I can't breathe" So he yells to the coach but their busy with the running backs ignoring all of us. So my teammates start crowding around me trying to help me out. They ask where my asthma pump and I manage to tell them my mom has it. Turns out she was no where to be seen! She went to get coffee!
So I feel like I'm about to pass out and my face is so red. Then I try my hardest ever to breathe. So my gasps for air start making weird noises. When I tried breathing in a sqeeking noise is made. When I tried to breathe out a weezing noise was made. Then I started doing it repeatedly really fast, 2 breathe in breathe outs in 1 second. It sounded like "heee-huh!""heee-huh!"
Then my coaches finally notice, except the head coach. They come running over and everyone is trying to help me. They take my helmet off and they start giving me water. They were about to call 911 when suddenly I was getting air again. It was a miracle! I was still breathing really heavy but at least I had air. After awhile I catch up with my breathing and I start to feel better.
I know I'm 13 years old but I seriously felt like crying. That was the scariest moment of my life. My 1st ever real asthma attack where I could not breath at all. It was my 2nd near death experience. This one was a lot scarier. Both times I really thought I was going to die though.
The first time was during my 2010 camping trip. We were out on the lake and my uncle's speedboat was pulling individuals on a raft. I gave it a try and had so much fun. My uncle managed to knock me off the raft and it was funny. The life jacket kept me floating.
So the next day we decide we want to do it again. So once again my turn. This time right when the boat takes off, something goes wrong with the damn raft. First the rope breaks and the raft is disconnected from the boat. Then somehow the thing decides to flip over and it starts sinking! So I'm trapped under this raft going under the water thinking I'm going to die. Luckily the life jacket was really powerful and pushed me and the raft up.
The reason it wasn't as scary as the asthma attack is because it happened really quick. I was under the water for a short amount of time. With the asthma attack, I went without breathing for over 4 minutes, and never passed out! So that whole time I was scared and gasping for air. Then when I'm pretty much breathing normal again everyone acts like nothing happened and we just continue practice. Luckily no more excercising.
So yeah it was really scary, first time. I'm afraid it will happen again next practice. 🙁
I'll tell you all about it.
So I have asthma, but its not your regular everyday asthma that people have. I have what is known as cold-enduced asthma. This means my asthma only acts up when I get sick. Especially when I have a cold. And it gets really bad some times. So yes, the common cold is very dangerous for me. I've never really had an asthma attack though were I can't breath at all. I just breath really fast and heavy, and have trouble. Plus when I get a cold my nose is congested so I can't breath with it, so all I can use to breath is my mouth. So I don't have any problems with my asthma when I'm not sick.
So I like to play sports. I play American Football for a team. I've been doing it since I was 5 years old, and right now I'm 13. In all those years I haven't had much breathing trouble. There has been some times where I get sick and still have to show up to practice, so I really have trouble breathing those days. I still always manage to get through it somehow.
So this year I'm playing on my last year of football before high school football. Its a separate league that's for younger kids, but my level (varsity) does have some high school freshman like me, but that's why its the last year. So at this varsity level, we are pushed really hard. I think they really over-do it. I know they are trying to get us in shape but seriously you have got to see what they do to us. I mean come on were only teenagers.
Anyways, I have had this damn cold since August 15th and it just wont go away. 15 days now I've been dealing with this. Usually it takes me a day or 2 to loose my cold! So something must be going on here with me. I've been having a lot of trouble breathing in practice lately, and I get so tired. But as I always have, I manage to get through it.
Now I just had football practice today. My asthma was the worst ever today. So we had just gotten through our main course of excercises, which got me breathing so fast and heavy, I was just so tired. So then the head coach, without even giving us water, lines us up. He sets a long line of cones up.
Now this is what he has us do. He has us bear crawl (run on all 4's, hands and legs, like a bear, and they expect us to be fast.) in and out of the cones until the last cone were he has us get up and SPRINT a lap. Run as fast as we can. All we ever did was jog on our laps, but now he had as sprint the entire thing immediately after being tired out from the bear crawl. He wanted us to do it 4 times.
So let me tell you, bear crawls and laps are my worst. Anything else I can do just fine. (push ups, shuffle, backpedal, etc.) Bear crawls and laps I'm just so slow on though. On the laps, I get these cramps and I jog really slow, falling behind the rest of the team, I really struggle with them. Jogging around this big huge field. Now the bear crawls, I don't know what it is, I'm just so horrible at them.
I used to be even worse though. I used to take 5 minutes just to do one and I would keep falling down constantly in the middle of it. This year I still go slow but I don't fall and my teammates cheer me on all the time which really encourages me to push myself to finish this bear crawl. These bear crawls are what seriously bring on my asthma when I'm sick. I almost couldn't breath at all last week after our bear crawls, but I caught up with my breath.
So today on our regular straight bear crawl, I actually did pretty good. I went faster than normal and all my teammates were clapping for me. I was so proud of myself. I was also so tired.
So now I'm sitting here as tired as ever, about to do my 2 worst things ever. A bear crawl which was even worse now because we had to go in and out of a huge lines of cones, and then we had to immediately go for a lap. I start doing it all tired and slow on it, and my coaches are yelling at me, then I go into the lap real slow and they are screaming at me to run.
I make it back to the line for my 2nd turn, and I was so tired. Of course the line has to move really quickly, so then I go again right away. This time it was even worse, and one of my coaches was forcing me to run it, so then I got my cramp. I come back for the 3rd one, I start off fast like they want but by the end I'm so tired that I almost start walking, but I'm there jogging at less than 0.1 mph. My best friend Luis who is one of my teammates comes up and starts pushing me on the back to help me get going, and I finish that lap.
I see kids drinking water and I'm so relieved. Breathing really heavy I start walking towards the water when suddenly the head coach starts yelling at me. He tells me that I need to do 4 in order to get water, I had only done 3. So I guess at some point in all my slowness, all these kids lapped me and did 4 while I had just finished my 3rd.
So I start the bear crawl and when I get to the end of the cones, another coach hears my poor breathing, and tells me I can stop, to go get water. That was really nice of him. I'm walking towards the water slowly and I start breathing really really heavy and I start to get scared. Then I feel like I can't breathe at all, I start gasping for air. Then I completely stop breathing. No air is coming in or out and I'm not even making a sound.
I'm just standing there unable to breath. I somehow manage to say really quietly to one of my teammates.. "I can't breathe" So he yells to the coach but their busy with the running backs ignoring all of us. So my teammates start crowding around me trying to help me out. They ask where my asthma pump and I manage to tell them my mom has it. Turns out she was no where to be seen! She went to get coffee!
So I feel like I'm about to pass out and my face is so red. Then I try my hardest ever to breathe. So my gasps for air start making weird noises. When I tried breathing in a sqeeking noise is made. When I tried to breathe out a weezing noise was made. Then I started doing it repeatedly really fast, 2 breathe in breathe outs in 1 second. It sounded like "heee-huh!""heee-huh!"
Then my coaches finally notice, except the head coach. They come running over and everyone is trying to help me. They take my helmet off and they start giving me water. They were about to call 911 when suddenly I was getting air again. It was a miracle! I was still breathing really heavy but at least I had air. After awhile I catch up with my breathing and I start to feel better.
I know I'm 13 years old but I seriously felt like crying. That was the scariest moment of my life. My 1st ever real asthma attack where I could not breath at all. It was my 2nd near death experience. This one was a lot scarier. Both times I really thought I was going to die though.
The first time was during my 2010 camping trip. We were out on the lake and my uncle's speedboat was pulling individuals on a raft. I gave it a try and had so much fun. My uncle managed to knock me off the raft and it was funny. The life jacket kept me floating.
So the next day we decide we want to do it again. So once again my turn. This time right when the boat takes off, something goes wrong with the damn raft. First the rope breaks and the raft is disconnected from the boat. Then somehow the thing decides to flip over and it starts sinking! So I'm trapped under this raft going under the water thinking I'm going to die. Luckily the life jacket was really powerful and pushed me and the raft up.
The reason it wasn't as scary as the asthma attack is because it happened really quick. I was under the water for a short amount of time. With the asthma attack, I went without breathing for over 4 minutes, and never passed out! So that whole time I was scared and gasping for air. Then when I'm pretty much breathing normal again everyone acts like nothing happened and we just continue practice. Luckily no more excercising.
So yeah it was really scary, first time. I'm afraid it will happen again next practice. 🙁
