I'm a lifelong asthmatic who was born 10 weeks premature and started displaying symptoms before I was even released from NICU. I had severe uncontrolled asthma throughout my childhood, which became less severe when I hit adolescence. Due to my ignorance of asthma, I misinterpreted the lessening of my asthma severity as me "outgrowing" my asthma, and in my ignorance, I stopped all my asthma medications (and my parents unfortunately let me). As a result, I had uncontrolled asthma that was pretty mild until I hit university. Then, when I was in third year, my sister brought home two kittens. Around then, I started having increased allergy symptoms. My asthma didn't hit again until I got a flu in the winter of my fourth year of university, and then it was like I was transported back to my childhood: Up coughing all night, too short of breath to climb stairs or walk down the hall in the house I was staying, so little appetite that I lost twenty five pounds in six weeks, unable to do lab work, and at least one ER visit a month (and my doctor now tells me I should have had more, but I have a fear of needles and so tend to leave my asthma until I'm in very dire straights before I get help - a goofus asthmatic trait, I'll admit). It took eight months to get my asthma back under control, which had me go from a low dose of Flovent and ventolin alone to my current control regime (listed above), allergy testing, through six different doctors (three of whom were convinced it was "just bronchitis", one who was convinced there was "no reason" why Flovent on its own shouldn't control my symptoms, and now my current allergist and GP), giving away the cats, and being unable to help my parents around their farm (due to a very serious hay allergy). I'm now a chemistry graduate student, and though my asthma isn't quite as well-controlled as I like (I still flare every time I get sick, which since I teach students means about once every month and a half), I'm getting a better handle on it as I try my best to become an educated "gallant asthmatic"!