ABSTRACT
I felt relieved. Asthma: a common, treatable condition, I thought. e familiar sight of the blue inhaler reassured me. I had some doubts about my atypical asthma, since nothing seemed to trigger it and I never had any distinct attacks of narrowed airways. But I deeply wanted to believe this interpretation of my poor lung function. I also had my alpha 1-antitrypsin levels checked to rule out defi ciency. When the result came back saying “normal” I cried with relief at the reception desk of the health centre. I used the inhalers and plotted my breathing
as instructed. But the inhalers did not help. My peak-fl ow readings were slowly but steadily decreasing. It was winter. It was very cold. I found cycling to work harder and harder. And then I caught a cold. In the beginning it seemed like the usual runnynose type of cold. Every day I would wake up thinking: today, today it must get better.
