Working Life: I avoided sport because it made me breathless, but I didn’t know I had asthma
Dr Maitiú Ó Faoláin, Meath-based GP and member of the Asthma Society's Medical Advisory Group photographed at Deerpark Medical Centre, Ashbourne, County Meath. Photo: Barry Cronin
I drag myself out of bed, take my preventative inhaler and head to the gym. By taking the inhaler, I can ward off exercise-induced asthma.
As a kid, I avoided sport because it made me breathless, but I didn’t know at the time that I had asthma.
I was only diagnosed when I did a course on asthma as part of my GP training.
It opened up a whole new world of sport to me once I knew how to control it.
So many kids find themselves in a similar situation, avoiding sport for fear of becoming breathless — they don’t know they have asthma.
After the gym, I head for the GP practice in Ashbourne, Co Meath, where I start seeing patients from 7.15am.
The early appointments are to facilitate people ahead of their working day.
Those early arrivals are chronic disease patients coming in for review, with conditions such as heart failure, COPD, diabetes, and asthma.
For those with asthma, I make sure they’re making optimal use of their controller inhaler as a preventative measure.
Winter can be particularly challenging for people with asthma because cold air, pollutants from fuel burning, and respiratory viruses can all trigger and worsen symptoms.
The first step to staying well with asthma is to take your steroid inhaler.
8am
I spend the next couple of hours seeing patients with the usual run-of-the-mill stuff that we typically treat in a GP practice.
An older cohort of patients attends later in the morning, again with chronic disease.
For those with asthma, it’s a great opportunity to look at their oral steroid use.
If they can establish better control with the inhaled steroid, they’ll reduce the number of flare-ups.
Prolonged use of oral steroids can be a sign of uncontrolled asthma.
There can also be side effects from oral steroids.
Sandwich at the desk while reviewing various test results.
Clinic resumes for the afternoon.
At 5pm, I go through any complex cases with trainee GPs as our practice is a training practice.
Home for dinner with the kids. I use my controller before heading out to hockey training.
Most controllers are used twice a day and I time it to match my morning and evening exercise routine.
