Childhood asthma

doi:10.1136/bmj.b2889

Published 1 September 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b2889
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b2889

Practice

A Patient’s Journey

Childhood asthma

Chantelle Down, patient¹, Anna Chappell, practice nurse²

¹ Penzance , ² Rosmellyn Surgery, Penzance TR18 4JH

Correspondence to: A Chappell apldj@btinternet.com

This patient describes becoming increasingly adept at managingher asthma, particularly with the help of dance

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

I am a 15 year old girl, and asthma greatly affects my lifeand the lives of my family and friends. My mother also has asthma,but my sister has now grown out of the condition. I was only18 months old when I showed the first signs of asthma. At firstmy mother thought it was a chesty cough, but it lingered formany weeks. In addition, I was extremely wheezy and tight chestedat times. My GP repeatedly assured my mother that there wasnothing to worry about and that it was only a cough. As my motherhas had asthma all her life, she was not convinced of this.Dissatisfied with the GP’s diagnosis, she took me to seea locum doctor, who immediately recognised the symptoms of asthma.Because of our family history, he had me admitted to TreliskeHospital in Truro. Consequently my mother decided . . . [Full text of this article]