My story is about asthma. When I lived in Washington, I used to get frequent asthma attacks, most often from running or playing too hard, or extreme cold. On Veterans' Day in 2021, I was working at our family's meat shop, my stepmother was away at a business trip, and my dad was in the Veteran's Day Parade for the VFW. My aunt and some coworkers were working with me. I was 15. I was unloading a customer's meat, about 21 boxes, each weighing about 50-60 pounds. I had already been having trouble breathing all morning, but that was normal.
After about 2 boxes, I took my inhaler and kept working. after the fifth box, my face was a deep shade of red and I almost passed out. I slipped on some ice in the freezer and needed to take my inhaler again. Luckily, we had a nebulizer in the meat shop, so I took a dose of that. After that first dose, my face turned purple, and my aunt called my dad, who told her to call an ambulance.
I was told to take two more puffs of my inhaler and take a nebulizer treatment. I'm afraid of ambulances, so I started freaking out, even more so when they pulled in the driveway. I was hyperventilating and passed out. They loaded me in the ambulance and injected me with something. I ended up being in the hospital for seven hours before all of my levels were normal. I still have no idea what actually caused the asthma attack other than pushing myself hard and it being really cold.
