Advice for writing Nicky having asthma (from an asthmatic person)
Hi! I notice very few fics really mention Nicky having asthma at all, despite it being canon, and I understand why since it's a very minor thing for a lot of people, but I thought I'd give some tips for people who may not feel confident
In the UK, at least, we get given two inhalers - a preventer inhaler that you have a set dose of daily, and an emergency inhaler. They are currently trialling a combined one to the public that looks like a Pokeball. My dad was given one and ended up asking to switch back because he didn't like it
The preventer inhaler is taken with a spacer chamber (image below). You put the inhaler in at one end, put the mouth piece in your mouth, and gently breathe in as you push down on the inhaler. You do this 5 times
If you breathe in too strongly, it makes a honking noise. This is a sign that you're doing it wrong
Kids often get given spacers with teddy bear patterns on them
Spacers are supposed to be replaced every 12 months and cleaned every so often. You shouldn't scrub the inside, it messes with the way the spacer works
You need to rinse your mouth out after both emergency and preventer inhalers, because the chemicals can give you mouth ulcers. Just drinking some water and swishing it round your mouth a bit is fine. This is extra important for the emergency inhaler, since it's stronger
You need to wait roughly 30 seconds between doses
Both me and another asthmatic friend got told that we should take our emergency inhalers before doing exercises, as a preventative measure. Neither of us do because the emergency one tastes the way petrol smells and we both have mild enough asthma that we've never needed to. Nicholas would absolutely follow this advice
If you don't take your preventer inhaler, it feels like your throat is closing up. For me, I need to miss a few days for this to happen. It doesn't feel painful, but it is unpleasant and you are very aware of it
If you have mild asthma like I do, your day-to-day life is basically unaffected, other than sometimes having to walk slower up hills
You don't just use your emergency inhaler randomly. Anthony does this and many TV shows do this, but that's not how it works. You use an emergency inhaler when your breathing gets worse, your throat feels tighter, you're about to use exercise, or you're having wheezy coughs
^ Asthma-induced coughs sound specific and wheezy. Knowing this is how we found out I had asthma
Niche undiagnosed asthma symptom time - stitches! Most symptoms only focus on the breathing, so I'll explain this: as a kid, before we knew I had asthma, I used to go running with my mum, and I would constantly get stitches, no matter what we tried (no milk an hour before running, more water, less water, etc). When we had to do a termly cross-country run in high school, I would typically get 5 stitches in various places by the end of the 20 minutes of consistent running. Turns out, this was actually most like because of my asthma - when you're low on oxygen, your body does anaerobic respiration to produce energy. It produces less energy but can be done quicker, but it also creates a byproduct of lactic acid. Stitches are caused by a build-up of lactic acid. I literally only made the connection in high school biology after we found out I was asthmatic. So, most likely, Nick would be prone to stitches while doing soccer/PE
I've never had an asthma attack, but trying to run around and exercise for about an hour whilst unmedicated can give you a really unpleasant sensation best described as feeling like your throat is full of ice knives, and it kinda hurts to breathe
Dust can trigger symptoms - this is how I found out I was asthmatic, my parents were moving things and kicking up a lot of dust, and I started wheezy-coughing, which my mum recognised as being the same kind my dad gets. After an antihistamine didn't help, she had me try his inhaler and it worked. We went to the GP shortly afterwards to get me actually diagnosed
Please feel free to add to this! I'm just one person, and I can't speak for the kind of medication offered in America, but I hope this was helpful <3
