Karine describes which asthma medications she is currently taking to control her attacks.
Karine:
I am on one asthma medication, and it is Xolair, and for me it has been a life-altering medication. I started Xolair about four years ago. It is an injectable medication, and depending on a combination of your height and weight ratio and what is referred to as your IgE load, you get a certain dosage of an injection, and you get it on a certain frequency.
In my particular case, I get shots every four weeks, and prior to starting that medication, I couldn’t ride my bike, I couldn’t climb a flight of stairs, I couldn’t hike, I couldn’t laugh, I couldn’t do any of those kinds of things. Additionally, I suffered severely every year with bronchitis and pneumonia, like weeks at a time I was home sick on disability, couldn’t function.
And four years ago when I started the Xolair treatment, within months, all of that started to change. I could ride my bike again. I could climb a flight of stairs in my apartment building without feeling winded, without feeling like I was going to fall over or not be able to make it to the top. I started hiking mountains again, huge, huge, huge, huge difference, and within a year of that, my illnesses went away. No more bronchitis, no more pneumonia.
When I got a sinus infection, it was just a sinus infection. It didn’t fall into my lungs. I didn’t turn into this horribly sick and miserable person. And four years later, all I have to do is commit to showing up once every four weeks to get my shots, and the rest of the time I am a normal person, almost can’t tell that I have asthma. I don’t use a rescue inhaler, I don’t have to take pills, I don’t have to use my nebulizer, I don’t have to do any of those things.
It’s awesome; it’s been life-changing. I couldn’t say enough about it. It has freed me. I get to be normal, awesome.
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