Patient perspective: How my physicians help me confidently manage severe asthma
Key Takeaways
Shiv Sewlal is a content creator based in South Africa. On social media, she shares her experience with asthma, eczema, and 40 different allergies with more than half a million followers.
MDLinx spoke with Shiv about how her physicians have been integral in helping her feel confident in managing her asthma.
How were doctors most helpful in managing your asthma?
Shiv Sewlal: When I was younger, I especially liked that my doctors really dumbed down the knowledge for me to understand. They would bring diagrams and explain it, not with very technical terms.
A lot of times when I would go to doctors, before I found someone that I liked, they would say all these terms that would just go over my head, or I’d be bored, even though it was something that affected me. I was not interested at all.
"When I had really good doctors they would calmly talk it out and give me explanations. The knowledge they taught me actually stuck with me."
— Shiv Sewlal
Tell us about your current experience with your doctor
I’ve been with her for 3 years, and she’s been amazing, she really helps me feel confident. She takes time to explain things to me.
Right now I’m seeking knowledge like, how can I navigate this? Can you tell me the reason why these triggers are affecting me? And she’s always big on diagrams. She’ll draw something and explain it, not in technical terms, so that if I understand my body and I understand my environment, then I know when I’m out and about: I’m feeling this feeling because of this.
And I think that knowledge is so helpful, I just want to know, why is my body reacting like this? Because a lot of times it’s like, OK, you have asthma. I’ve grown with this my whole life, but I still don’t know why.
She explains it in a calm way: “Okay, you know what, in the future there might be flare ups. But you’re doing good now.” She is very calm and takes her time explaining it. So I really appreciate that.
Describe your first experiences with allergies and asthma
I’ve only ever known living with these conditions. I was born with eczema, and they diagnosed me really young with allergies. They also diagnosed me with asthma really early, and I struggled a lot with it when I was younger, especially around the ages of 6 to 9.
That was when my asthma was really uncontrolled. I would constantly go to the pulmonologist, my doctors, and constantly get asthma attacks playing on the playground, and just doing normal things.
What steps did you take to establish a treatment plan?
I had a really bad attack in school when I was 10 years old, where we had to run a long distance for sports day. While we were running I dropped my asthma pump. And I thought, OK, I can’t retrieve it. I’m just gonna carry on. But I had a really bad asthma attack. My friend’s dad had to carry me to the doctor.
My parents were like, “We need to get more control. This is bad.” After that, the school didn’t make running compulsory for everyone, and that’s when I started taking a preventative asthma pump.
Tell us about your worst asthma episode
I was a teenager when I had my worst asthma episode. It was a school excursion where they took the whole grade to a remote area, and we were glamping. There were no hospitals or anything nearby, and there was an activity in a lake. I took my asthma pump with me, and I just left it on the bank, because I didn’t want to get it wet. And I participated in the water activity.
At the time, my asthma was controlled. I hadn’t had an attack in years. I was very into sports and fitness, I didn’t ever need it, so I thought I would be safe as long as it’s there. If I did need it, I would just swim to shore and everything would be okay.
But while I was swimming back, I started wheezing and coughing. I didn’t realize how much energy that would require. And I started feeling a little hazy. I felt like I was gonna pass out. I always thought that I could scream for help. But at the time, I couldn’t scream. I was just trying to swim back to shore. Luckily I did manage to get there, and when I got there I was seeing black spots. And that was the worst I ever felt because of my asthma.
I didn’t tell my parents when I got home. I have very strict parents because of my conditions. They didn’t want me to go on the school excursion in the first place. They said it would be dangerous, especially with no hospital nearby. They also knew my teachers didn’t take asthma very seriously. So my parents didn’t trust the teachers to actually keep an eye on me.
"That taught me that no matter how controlled my asthma is, there could always be bad days."
— Shiv Sewlal
I learned I should always keep my pump physically on me at all times. I bought a waterproof bag, where I keep my asthma pump on me. And I also learned to take two puffs before any form of exercise. It actually does help a lot, just in case.
Is there anything specific that triggers your asthma episodes?
I think it is random and unexpected, and I just always have to be prepared. But I also think I’m now learning a little bit more about myself. So now I know that my asthma is very strongly linked to my allergies and my environment.
But, thanks to the help from my care team, I’m in a very settled state, and my asthma is quite controlled. It hasn’t irritated me in the last 2 years.