Pets and Asthma

[amza]

I am 15 years old and have asthma.  I do not take any medication on a daily basis, and never have any problem breathing unless a trigger induces an attack.  In addition, I play sports and take one dose of ventolin before activity.  One of my triggers is animals, (I am allergic to the dander of almost any animal you can name).  My problem is that I find it very hard to avoid my friends' pets.  I find this to be a significant problem in my life because, say I go to a friend's house who has a cat for about an hour, even after taking my ventolin (and even flovent), my chest tightens up a lot and I have trouble breathing for DAYS afterwards.  This is very inconvenient for me, because most of my friends have either a cat or a dog.  My parents think I should avoid pets all together.  My doctor says I should take two doses of ventolin and two doses of flovent (for three days) if I am around any pets.  This doesn't help much, because I still have trouble breathing for a week afterwards.  My question is, am I slowly making my asthma worse by being around pets?  Is there anything else you reccomend I do if I am going to be around a pet?  Thank you very much in advance.

[bactitech]

Duh! You are worried about pets and then SMOKE??????????? Are you CRAZY??????????

I guess your only excuse is that you're 15. Someday, assuming your lungs make it that long, you will look back on this and think of what an idiot you were to smoke.

It seems that your friends not only expose you to pet dander that you can't handle but also marijuana smoke that will extremely exacerbate your asthma. Your parents are spending a fortune on your medications (or their insurance is) and you thank them by SMOKING and not telling them.

My daughter is 25 now, but when she was 15 she was rebelling quite a bit. She started smoking cigarettes (I have no idea about marijuana - I would guess she tried it at some point) at age 13 and at age 25 is pretty well over it, although it has taken her a number of times to quit. She did not have to deal with asthma. You do.

If you value breathing, you will stop this silliness while you still have lungs that are functioning. Sorry to be so blunt but someone has to be.

[National Jewish]

This is a real problem and one that is not so uncommon.  You do not have a lot of choices because of trying to keep your friends and also trying to keep from being sick.  If going into these houses is a MUST, and it appears that way, trying to use the medicines in a more effective way is the best bet.  You probably will have to "experiment" a little with the doses to make the following work.  You will need to lower the baseline level of inflammation in your lungs in order for you to tolerate exposure to a highly potent trigger that is cats more than dogs.  This will mean taking a higher dose of Flovent

[amza]

Oh sorry I forgot to mention something else.  This is a question I can't go to my doctor for.  I smoke marijuana occasionally..maybe twice a month.  Can this also make my asthma worse?