"Today," she continued, "we know that a small amount of corticosteroids in your lungs all the time is relatively safe (so long as you rinse after each use). We are taught that it takes 2-3 weeks for inhaled corticosteroids to get into your system, and it will do little to prevent asthma if you are not on it continuously.  Thus asthmatics are taught to never stop taking it even when they are feeling well.  That wasn't the case in 1984."

It's funny she said that, because recently I found a note from my doctor written in 1980.  It said, "I'm prescribing Vanceril, but do not have Rick use it unless he is having an asthma attack."

I also have my discharge papers after a two week stay in the hospital in January of 1984. On my medications list was written the following: "Vanceril inhaler prn (as needed)." 

I remember my doctors back then discussing with me and my parents the systemic side effects of inhaled steroids.  They said that like systemic corticosteroied, the inhaled ones might also stunt my growth and cause my bones to weaken. 

Now we know, as Jane said, that inhaled steroids are relatively safe.  That not using them and relying on your rescue inhaler to treat acute symptoms is far worse than using your Flovent or Advair or Pulmocort or Symbicort. 

Sure, it's true my airways might have been "twitchy" whether I was on controller meds all the time or not.  That I may never know.  Yet I can say it's a pretty safe bet that because my asthma was treated with "primitive" wisdom, this resulted in lung scarring that led to me becoming an inhaler abuser, or bronchodilatoraholic.

So, I think the jury is out:  I was a legitimate Hardluck Asthmatic. 

Thankfully, modern wisdom and medicine cured me -- and others like me -- of my Hardluck Asthma and turned me into a Gallant Asthmatic instead.  In a way, asthmatics like me who were born prior to the establishment of the asthma guidelines in 1991 were Poor Generation Asthmatics, asthma victims of the era we grew up in.

This is a perfect example of how far asthma wisdom has come just in my lifetime. 

It is true that no asthmatic should ever have to suffer from asthma the way I did when I was  a kid -- so long as you take your medicines exactly as prescribed by your doctor, have an asthma action plan, and continuously strive to be a Gallant Asthmatic.