The Hospital

• Fun when you have visitors
• The hospital was almost like my second home
• I had a tutor
• It was difficult
• I was out of school for a week
• Scared every time I got an asthma attack
• I don't like being sick, but I like the hospital
• It's frustrating sometimes

Fun when you have visitors

It's not that fun when nobody is here, but it is fun sometimes when you have visitors.

–Lucy, 7

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The hospital was almost like my second home

When I was younger, my asthma was not under control.  I would take different medications, and the doctors would test me on different things.  I would go into the hospital maybe four or five times a year.  It was scary, but I got used to it— it was almost like my second home!  I actually had an assigned nurse at the hospital.  My longest stay in the hospital was probably a month.  That was my life—I was in and out of the hospital until high school.  As I got older I had a better understanding of what was happening, but when I was younger I didn't really understand what was going on.

–Bridget, 26

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I had a tutor

When I was in 1st and 2nd grade I had a tutor when I was in the hospital.  I'd make sure that I'd do my homework and my mom would send it in.  So I always had somebody there to help me with my schoolwork.

–Bridget, 26

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It was difficult

I'd be upset and feel frustrated because I was missing school, getting behind in classes. My parents, though, made sure that each one of my teachers knew that I had this disease and so they would send me my homework.  The classes would make me cards.  In some ways it was nice because I knew that people cared and they were very understanding.  But it sucked because even though my parents would come visit me, they had to work, so I was alone sometimes.  And then having to catch up with schoolwork… it was just difficult.

–Bridget, 26

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I was out of school for a week

I've been hospitalized many times for my asthma, but the only time I had to miss school was during my junior year of high school, in which I was out for a week.  I had so much work to do to catch up, and everyone knew I was absent.  It was hard to catch up, because I was so sick while I was there that I couldn't do work in the hospital and had twice as much to do when I got home.

–Michelle, 22

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Scared every time I got an asthma attack

When I was a kid I was scared every time I got an asthma attack.  You can't breathe.  It's scary.  I'd start to feel better once we got to the hospital though.  As I got into elementary school it was almost like a routine.  I knew if I caught a cold, my asthma would get/be bad, almost to the point where I would end up preparing myself to go to the hospital.  I would get there and everybody would know me.

–Bridget, 26

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I don't like being sick, but I like the hospital

We were painting our house and then I couldn't breathe.  My mom called the ambulance and they brought me to the emergency room, and I now I'm here (at the hospital).  I don't like being sick, but I like staying at the hospital.  They have a great food and I can play the PlayStation.  The doctors told me that I have to do this type of exercise with the balls where I've got to breathe in and out.  When I breathe in, the balls go up.  I have to do it ten times.

–Caleb, 8

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It's frustrating sometimes

It is frustrating going to the emergency room sometimes.  My last emergency room visit I got so frustrated that I almost wrote a letter because I was so upset about my experience.  I used to get frustrated because I was like, “Give me this medication” because I know what I need and I know this is what my allergist would prescribe; I've had this illness for so long and I've been educated on it and my allergist is so wonderful, I know what is going on.  Having to sit and wait and struggle to breathe is frustrating.  I know and understand that it is their job and that they have to research and figure out the diagnosis.  It's frustrating when you've lived with the diagnosis so long though, and you know what it is.  My dad has been like, “Bridget, you need to relax because they need to figure this out for themselves.  This is their job.”  I'm like, “Dad, you don't understand— I know what I need.”  I went into the emergency room one time, not to put down the doctor that took care of me, but they said, “Take two Tylenol and you'll be okay, take some Tylenol every so often and you'll be okay.  It's just the flu.”  I started to leave the emergency room and there was a doctor that came up to my mom and who had known me from previous emergency room visits and was like, “She can't leave.  She is barely getting enough air into her.”  I ended up being in the ICU.

–Bridget, 26

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