Asthamtic swimmer help?

Question

My wife is a sever asthmatic and often has attacks and needs to use her nebulizer to do a breathing treatment when she has bad attacks. She wants to get back into swimming to help her asthma but is affarid of having a attack at the pool. She has had one before where the lifeguard didnt know what to do and my wife went into respiratory arrest and the lifeguard ended up doing rescue brerathing on her.

She has anebulizer that she can take to the pool but she is embarssed to ask when she can use it there in private. Has anyone else ever used anebulizer at the pool what did the lifeguards do to help you when u had a attack????

Answer 1

It sounds like prevention is more the key here...  let me explain.

1.  If she hasn't had one in awhile, she needs a breathing test (spirometry) to gauge the level of her asthma.

2.  She should be on a long term stabilizer such as Advair (fluticasone & salmeterol) to decrease the frequency with which she needs albuterol treatments.

3. Once stabilized, she can start swimming, but should take an albuterol treatment 1/2 hour before swimming to keep her lung passages open.

4. While not a nebulizer, the rescue inhalers should work under these conditions.  She should advise the lifeguard of her asthma and the location of her inhaler before swimming.

It will be important to work closely with your doctor to ensure that her asthma is tightly controlled and well monitored.  with that said, she should be fine.

Hope this helps.  Peace